8th July, 2008
In Southern Sudan there are only 100 doctors and less than 600 nurses for a population of over eight million people; in Europe there are approximately 19 health workers for every 1000 people. To equate Southern Sudan would need to train over 150,000 more health workers. AMREF has started this process by working with the government to set up three hospital training centres, training a wide range of health professionals including midwives.
AMREF– which started life as the Flying Doctors Service of East Africa fifty years ago – trains health workers in the poorest and most remote communities in Africa to prevent and treat malaria, HIV and TB. But with a shortage of over one and a half million health workers in Africa – most noticeably lacking in rural areas where 80% of Africa’s population lives – there are many areas that will have no access to health workers who can provide life saving education or medical support.
Meeting the health Millennium Development Goals
To meet the Millennium Development Goals related to health, the G8 must invest in an African health workforce, and keep the commitments made at Gleneagles, to help Africa to train and retain essential health workers. It is estimated that an additional $2.6 billion a year is required to educate and train the required 1.5 million health workers, over a 10 year period, in Africa alone .
The G8 should work with African nations to draw up health workforce plans which are costed and funded to ensure the investment addresses the specific health needs in each country, including the correct levels of doctors, nurses, midwives and other workers. They should focus on training, management, motivation and retention of staff to maintain a permanent workforce. They should take account of rural needs and, in the interim, consider training community health workers, who are members of the remote communities they serve, in order to educate others on disease and to act as a link to the formal health system.
Health agencies such as AMREF can pass on their health and development expertise but they need the G8 to support Africa in educating, training and managing a health workforce that can be motivated for the long-term.