10th July, 2008
AMREF's response to the G8
Prior to the G8 meeting in Japan that ended this week, AMREF called on the G8 to invest in an African health workforce, and to help Africa train and retain essential health workers. The commitments made at the G8 summit on the health workforce were a step forward, but did not go far enough. The absence of any financial commitments was particularly evident.
What has been committed?
• The G8 leaders committed to “working towards” increasing health workforce coverage towards the World Health Organisation (WHO) threshold of 2.3 health workers per 1,000 people. “Working towards” this threshold is not enough. The majority of African countries are currently well below this minimum threshold; many are not even at one third of this level. “Working towards” this goal does not commit the G8 leaders to a particular timeframe. This is essential so that they can be held to account.
• The WHO threshold to which the G8 leaders committed to “working towards” includes doctors, nurses and midwives. It does not include other health workers, such as community health workers, management and other non-clinical staff. The G8 leaders need to recognise the essential role that all health workers play in delivering much needed healthcare.
• The G8 indicated that they will only focus initially on increasing health workforce coverage in a limited set of countries. It is vital that G8 efforts reach all countries that need it; support must be inclusive not selective.
• G8 leaders committed to “supporting efforts” by partner countries to develop much needed health workforce plans. We welcome the G8's recognition of this. Plans will need to be comprehensive, costed, and needs-based. The G8 must go further and also support countries in fully implementing these plans, which will require tens of billions of dollars of new investment.
What is missing?
The G8 countries failed to commit to any specified level of resources for supporting the African health workforce. In their communiqué, the G8 countries committed “to work towards the goals of providing at least a projected US $60 billion over 5 years, to fight infectious diseases and strengthen health”. Yet to really deliver improvements in tackling HIV/ AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and expanding the health workforce will require far more than this. If the G8 does not provide the resources required to enable countries to develop and expand their health workforce, the plans that the G8 has committed to help develop will be of limited value.
Next steps
If African countries, which are facing severe health workforce challenges, are to have a chance of achieving global commitments to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the G8 must greatly accelerate its efforts to support countries in creating health workforce plans. All countries must have these plans in place by the end of 2009. As these plans are developed, G8 countries and other partners must commit to the long-term, predictable financing required to enable the countries cover financing gaps to the full implementation of these plans.