Training Healthcare Workers to Meet Africa's Healthcare Needs

Fundamental to healthcare are the people who deliver it. The science that underlies medicine would be nothing without the skill, compassion, and bravery of those who bring that science to the bedside. Unfortunately, these people who lie at the heart of healthcare systems are in short supply in Africa.

Consider the fact that despite bearing 25% of the world’s disease burden, Africa only has 1.3% of the world’s health personnel. Or the fact that the WHO projected that by 2030, the world would be short 14.5 million healthcare workers, with Africa’s shortfall making up 6.1 million (about 42%) of that number. And as of 2015, there were 1.30 HCWs for every thousand people in Africa, which significantly lags behind the 4.5 HCWs per thousand people needed to reach the Sustainable Development Goals.

By many measures, there is a mismatch between the demand for healthcare workers in Africa and their supply. And one reason for this mismatch has been the underinvestment in healthcare personnel training. In this episode, I speak to Dr. Bonaventure Ahaisibwe, the Managing Director for Impact and Innovation at Seed Global Health, a non-profit dedicated to building human resources for health capacity. We discussed Seed’s approach to building health workforce capacity, the need for information exchange in building capacity, and more.

These conversations are essential to keep having because, realistically, there is no healthcare without the people. As such, African countries must empower healthcare workers if they aim to achieve universal health coverage and meet the health needs of their people.