The Federal Government has called for stronger regional cooperation to address health worker shortages and migration across West Africa, as Africa targets two million community health workers by 2028. The initiative is expected to improve healthcare delivery and encourage medical professionals to remain in their home countries.
Minister of State for Health, Dr Adekunle Salako, made the call on Monday in Abuja while opening a meeting to review the Economic Community of West African States’ regional work plan for motivating and retaining health workers. The meeting is expected to produce a framework for improving welfare, harmonising training and strengthening workforce planning across member states.
Salako, represented by the ministry’s Director of Health Planning, Research and Statistics, Dr Ovuoraye John, said countries could not tackle the continent’s health workforce challenges independently. He also urged African countries to strengthen public health preparedness following Nigeria’s confirmed Ebola case, noting that cross-border movement remained important for regional trade and cooperation.
Professor Foluso Owoeye, representing the West African College of Surgeons, described the migration of health professionals, popularly known as “japa” in Nigeria, as a major threat to healthcare delivery. He said investments in training medical professionals could be undermined if governments failed to provide working conditions that encouraged them to remain and serve their communities.
Owoeye urged stakeholders to develop practical retention measures with clear targets, timelines and institutional responsibilities. He also advocated stronger links between training and retention through specialist education, mentorship, research and career advancement, alongside regional cooperation on workforce distribution and professional mobility.
The Director-General of the West African Health Organisation, Professor Palokinam T. Pitch, said regional authorities had directed that a long-term workforce retention plan be completed for periods of five, 10, 15 and 20 years before submission to the Assembly of Health Ministers. His representative, Professor Joseph Olorunda, added that 58 training curricula had been developed across different disciplines to make it easier for health professionals trained in one ECOWAS country to practise in another.
The meeting identified poor remuneration, delayed salaries, inadequate working conditions, limited career progression, uneven workforce distribution and migration as major challenges. It also cited estimates that Africa accounts for 24 per cent of the global disease burden but only three per cent of the health workforce, with the continent projected to need an additional 4.2 million health workers by 2030. Professor Kofi Balogun of WAHO said better pay, suitable accommodation and supportive working environments were essential to retaining professionals.
