By Samira Larbie, GNA
Accra, May 13, GNA – African ministers, policymakers, development partners, and health sector stakeholders have adopted the “Accra Declaration on Africa’s Health Workforce.
It seeks to committ to bold reforms and increased investment to address critical shortages, unemployment, migration, and poor working conditions affecting health workers across the continent.
The declaration was adopted at the close of the Second Africa Health Workforce Investment Forum hosted by the Government of Ghana in Accra.
The three-day forum brought together representatives from the health, education, finance, labour, and public service sectors to deliberate on sustainable strategies for strengthening Africa’s health workforce systems.
Prof Joyce Ayensu-Dankwa, the Deputy Minister of Health, reading the declaration on behalf of participating countries and stakeholders, acknowledged that investment in “competent, well-distributed, motivated, and protected health workers” remained fundamental to achieving universal health coverage, health security, resilience, and Africa’s broader socioeconomic aspirations.
The declaration noted progress made by African countries in expanding educational capacity and implementing workforce strategies, which had increased the continent’s health workforce to more than 5.7 million workers in 2024.
However, participants expressed concern over a projected shortfall of 5.85 million health workers by 2030 and persistent gaps in workforce planning, financing, employment, retention, and training.
The Deputy Minister observed that despite severe shortages of health personnel across the continent, nearly one million trained health workers remained unemployed in 2024, describing the situation as a “deepening crisis of absorption of health workers into the labour market.”
Delegates further highlighted macroeconomic and fiscal constraints facing African countries, including high debt burdens, declining development assistance for health, inadequate domestic financing, and inefficiencies within health systems.
The declaration also raised concerns over weak educational infrastructure, outdated curricula, slow adoption of digital technologies, regulatory challenges, and competency gaps among health professionals.
Prof Ayensu-Dankwa noted that Africa currently had only 46 per cent of the health workers it required to meet the healthcare needs of its population.
The declaration thus emphasized the need for decent working conditions, including improved remuneration, occupational safety, secure employment, career progression opportunities, and mental health support for health workers.
She linked poor conditions of service to burnout, occupational stress, migration, and inequitable distribution of health professionals, particularly in rural and underserved communities.
The forum reaffirmed commitments under several continental and global frameworks, including the African Union Agenda 2063, the WHO Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030, the Kampala Declaration, the Windhoek Statement on Investing in Africa’s Health Workforce, and the Astana Declaration on Primary Health Care.
The Participants also referenced African Union decisions supporting the recruitment and deployment of two million community health workers across the continent and the designation of Nigeria’s President as the African Union Champion for Human Resources for Health.
Under the Accra Declaration, member states committed to elevating health workforce development to the highest political level and strengthening coordination among ministries responsible for health, finance, education, labour, and public service.
Governments also pledged to increase domestic financing for health workforce education, recruitment, retention, and protection while establishing accountability frameworks to monitor implementation of the African Health Workforce Investment Charter.
The declaration called for stronger competency-based education, harmonised accreditation systems, mutual recognition of qualifications across countries, and closer alignment between education and labour market needs.
Participants further committed to promoting job creation in the health sector, leveraging digital health innovations such as telemedicine and artificial intelligence, and engaging the private sector in healthcare innovation and local production of health commodities.
The declaration urged African governments and development partners to strengthen retention strategies through equitable remuneration, safe working environments, rural posting incentives, and ethical management of health worker migration in line with international labour standards.
The forum also called on the African Union Commission to present the outcomes of the Accra forum to the Assembly of Heads of State and Government in February 2027.
Closing the forum, Ghana reaffirmed its commitment to translating the declaration into action under the strategic pillars of “Plan, Train, and Retain.”
The Deputy Minister assured that this would institutionalise health labour market analysis, finalise a national master plan for workforce education and recruitment, and establish mechanisms to align health worker recruitment with fiscal space and national health priorities.
On training, Ghana pledged to accelerate reforms in health professions education through competency-based curricula, specialist training expansion, digital innovation, strengthened accreditation systems, and diaspora engagement for mentorship and knowledge transfer.
On retention, the country announced plans to operationalise a medium-term recruitment strategy aimed at absorbing at least 25,000 health workers annually while expanding incentives for rural postings and improving remuneration packages.
Officials also indicated that Ghana would pursue bilateral agreements to ensure ethical and strategic migration management of health professionals.
Speaking at the closing ceremony, organisers praised the active participation of ministers, deputy ministers, permanent secretaries, development partners, and health professionals from across the continent.
Participants described investment in health workers as critical not only to strengthening healthcare systems but also to advancing economic growth, equity, dignity, and resilience across Africa.
The forum ended with a call for urgent implementation of the Accra Declaration to ensure that by 2030 Africa’s health workforce would be defined not by shortages and migration, but by resilience, innovation, and shared prosperity.
GNA
Reporter: Samira Larbie
[email protected]