Funding for health workers is crucial to ensure better health for Africa
In the UK, there are 250 doctors for every 100,00 people. In Sudan, there are only 16.
Without adequate numbers of health workers, such trained doctors, nurses, midwives and community health workers to promote health, prevent disease and provide medical care and advice, the people of Africa cannot hope to attain better health.
AMREF is calling for an increase in funding for health workers
AMREF does not just train health workers, we also advocate for governments and other institutions to recognise the need to train health workers and prevent brain drain from developing countries.
In partnership with 17 other organisations, AMREF has set up a new working group, ‘Human Resources for Health’. The challenges of achieving good health for the people of Africa cannot be overcome without more health workers. AMREF is making sure the UK government are held to account on this, so they increase UK political and financial commitment to the health workforce.
At the recent UN summit on the Millenium Development Goals, the Global Health Workforce Alliance and the Health Workforce Advocacy Initiative (of which AMREF is a key member) organised a side event focusing on the importance of health workers in achieving the health related MDGs. You can watch a video of the event or read about it in this report:
MDG Summit GHWA/HWAI Side Event Report
These videos from the event give an idea of the issues under discussion:
Michael Anderson - Director General of Policy and Global Affairs, DFID
Martha Kwataine - Executive Director, Malawi Health Equity Network
You can read more about AMREF's response to the health worker crisis in these documents:
Putting health workers at the heart of the MDGs
Achieving MDG 6 will require considerable investments in human resources for health at all levels
Brain drain: training and retaining health workers where they are needed most
Competency gaps in human resource management in the health sector
There is more information about the health worker crisis in our Resources section