Windhoek — The World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa and partner organizations today launched the region's first-ever health investment charter that aims to align and drive sustainable investment in the health workforce.
In addition to shortages, the African region faces many other health workforce challenges, including, rising unemployment, excessive out-migration and low quality of training. Low health investment and limited prioritization of the health workforce have critically exposed health systems.
"By investing in the health workforce, we not only address the challenges within the sector but also generate dividends in education, employment and gender equality," said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa."These investments will contribute to our sustained efforts in attracting more resources and improving the quality of our health workforce."
For every US$1 invested in health and sustaining the jobs of health workers, the potential return is as much as US$9. It has also been demonstrated that half of all economic growth globally over the past decade resulted from improvements in health, and that for every added year of life expectancy, the economic growth rate is boosted by 4%.