“We must now translate evidence into costed, budgeted, and multisectoral investment plans“ - Deputy Health Minister

Deputy Minister of Health, Prof. Dr. Grace Ayensu-Danquah, has called for urgent and coordinated investment in Africa’s health workforce, warning that the continent’s growing shortage of health professionals threatens efforts to improve healthcare delivery and achieve universal health coverage.

Speaking at the opening of the first high-level roundtable discussion of the 2nd Africa Health Workforce Investment Forum in Accra, Prof. Dr. Grace Ayensu-Danquah stressed the need for African governments and development partners to move beyond policy commitments and focus on practical implementation.

Addressing ministers, health experts, partners, and health worker representatives, she said the forum, themed “Turning Words into Action on Africa’s Health Workforce Investment: Plan, Train, Retain,” was intended to drive decisive action on strengthening Africa’s healthcare systems.

“Vision alone is not enough. We must now translate evidence into costed, budgeted, and multisectoral investment plans that deliver jobs, skills, and retained health workers at scale,” she stated.

According to her, the Africa Health Workforce Investment Charter adopted in Windhoek provided a shared framework for countries to prioritise, align, invest, and sustain workforce development efforts, but implementation remained critical.

Prof. Dr. Grace Ayensu-Danquah revealed that Africa is projected to face a shortage of 6.1 million health workers by 2030, despite about 27 per cent of trained health professionals currently remaining unemployed.

“This is not a policy gap — it is a coordination and financing challenge,” she emphasized, adding that without deliberate expansion of fiscal space, alignment between education and labour market demands, and stronger retention policies, many commitments would fail to produce the needed healthcare workforce.

She explained that the roundtable discussion sought to review progress made since the Windhoek declaration through the Africa Health Workforce Investments Scorecard, identify challenges affecting workforce development, promote practical solutions for implementing workforce investment strategies, and secure commitments on financing, employment, education reforms, and retention.

The Deputy Health Minister further underscored that investment in the health workforce should not be viewed solely as a health sector issue but as a broader national development priority involving finance, education, labour, and governance sectors.

“This roundtable is a whole-of-government dialogue. Health workforce investment is simultaneously a health system priority, a fiscal decision, an education system output, and a labour market outcome,” she noted.

Welcoming participants to Ghana, she expressed appreciation to the World Health Organization Africa Regional Office (WHO AFRO) for co-organising the meeting with the Government of Ghana.

“Good morning, Akwaaba, and welcome to Accra on behalf of the Government of Ghana and WHO AFRO, who are co-organisers of this meeting. I am delighted to see a rich convergence of senior-level technical experts across all sectors,” she said.

Story by: Joshua Kwabena Smith