Honorables and dear colleagues, please let me first thank the Government of Namibia for hosting this Forum and welcoming us.
It is both an honor and a privilege to stand before you today at the outset of the Africa Health Workforce Investment Forum. This gathering, under the esteemed auspices of the World Health Organization, marks a pivotal moment in our collective efforts to strengthen health systems across the African continent through strategic investments in our health workforce. Please let me thank WHO AFRO for organizing this important event.
Honorables and dear colleagues, as you know, the World is currently negotiating in Geneva the pandemic agreement. Because health workforce is essential for PPPR, there is a substantive article 7 dedicated to this pandemic agreement.
Therefore, please allow me to read the paragraph 1 of this article 7:
- Each Party, in line with its respective capacities and national circumstances, shall take the necessary steps to establish, safeguard, protect, invest in and sustain a multi-disciplinary, skilled, trained and diverse workforce to prevent, prepare for and respond to health emergencies closest to where they start, including in humanitarian settings, while maintaining quality essential health services and public health functions to contain outbreaks and prevent the escalation of a small-scale spread to global proportions.
Honorables and dear colleagues, there is clear responsibility on each African country to fulfill this commitment that we are making under the Pandemic Agreement because we will be accountable and the World will evaluate our performance as country, as region and as continent because our continent bears a significant portion of the world's disease burden, yet we operate with one of the most sparse health workforces globally.
The statistics speak volumes:
- While Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for approximately 24% of the global disease burden, it is home to only 3% of the world's health workers.
- Achieving universal health coverage by 2030 will require an additional 1.8 million health workers in Africa alone. The critical shortage of health workforce in Africa is projected to reach about 6.1 million by 2030, this will be made worse by the recurrent public health emergencies that we are facing on daily basis. In 2023 alone, Africa recorded 166 disease outbreaks and the trend I see in 2024 is not promising.
AU member states are far from realizing the 2017 AU Assembly Decision that called for rapid recruitment, training and deployment of 2 million institutionalized CHWs by 2030. To accelerate this agenda, we thank our Heads of State who approved during the 2024 AU Assembly the decision tabled by Africa CDC to appoint President Bola Tinubu as Champion for Health Workforce and Community Health Delivery Partnership. I will be in Abuja the third week of May to meet President Bola and discuss on how he can help the continent to push this agenda.
- Studies show that investments in the health sector yield substantial economic returns, estimating a nine to one return on investment. This is one of the pieces of evidence I'm using when I'm talking about changing the narrative in the Health area in Africa. Indeed, some of you Ministers who are here know that sometimes you have difficult conversation with Ministers of Finance because they still believe that Health sector is a liability. The new narrative that we are promoting is to transform the health sector to move from liability to an asset for the economy of our countries. Then, we will start to have another conversation with our Ministers of Finance. In fact, they will be people who will start to look for Ministers of health.
Indeed, from World Economic Forum data, as a driving force of their economies, the pharma sector was responsible for more than 35% of the GDP of Switzerland and India between 2010 and 2020.
Now, Honourable and colleagues, you will understand why everyday I qualify the local manufacturing agenda in Africa as the second independence of our continent because it will bring health security, job creation, economic growth, peace and stability.
Last week, I was upset about an article from the UK newspaper The Telegraph and maybe some of you saw it. This article is stating that local manufacturing in Africa is a dead dream and advising that Africa has just to accept that India is the Pharmacy of the World and strengthen its ties with this country to import needed vaccines and medicines. To support their conclusion, they are outlining 3 challenges outlined:
(1) Low human capacity, (2) Low ability to develop antigens for vaccine, and (3) Inability to procure vaccines one made based on economic of scale
- The first challenge is why we are here today. While we have made huge progress in Africa, this gathering will send a strong message about our firm commitment to address the health workforce by becoming innovative.
- The second challenge is why we are fighting under the pandemic agreement to have more transfer of technology. Please let us also recognize the effort we made, and we are now capturing more resources for R&D and clinical trials in Africa.
- The third reason is why Africa CDC submitted to heads of State who approved during the February 2024 AU Assembly the creation of the continental pooled procurement mechanism. What kind of economy of scale they are talking about when you have a market of 1.4 billion people and that is still growing to become the first biggest market in a few years?
To make our action more concrete, you saw that in March 2024, Africa CDC signed a MoU with UNICEF that is transferring to our continental organization its capacity and capability on pooled procurement mechanism and supply chain management. In short, in the next 2-3 years, Africa CDC will take over and play the role that UNICEF Supply Division in Copenhagen is playing by procuring and suppling African countries with essential commodities with preference on products made in Africa.
Honorables and dear colleagues,
2 weeks ago, I was in Washington for the WG-IMF Spring meeting. Among gatherings, I had an impressive meeting with the Ministers of Finance from Egypt, Tanzania and CAR who agreed with me to work together and change the narrative. Thanks to the experience of innovative financing that he managed to put in place in Egypt and generating around 2 billion USD for the health sector, I have appointed the Minister of Egypt as the lead of African high-level panel on innovative financing in the health area. Other members will be 3 other Ministers of finance, 3 Ministers of health, some partners and personalities. Very soon, you will have details about this initiative.
To bridge the gap between Finance and health, I also initiated a continental platform to exchange on health financing that will bring every year during the Spring meeting in April in Washington our Ministers of Finance, Planning, Budget and Health supported by some Heads of State mostly our champions in different areas.
Since I have announced this initiative, I saw great interest from various partners like World Bank, IMF, US Treasury, Gavi, GFATM, Private sector and so many others requesting to be involved. We are working on that, and you will be updated in due course.
Honorables and dear colleagues,
As demonstrated, we will go nowhere if we don't have appropriate health workforce.
At continental level, our countries have adopted the AU Agenda 2063 "the Africa we want". To achieve this ambitious agenda, we have a milestone that is the Sustainable Development Goal in 2030 especially for us the SDG 3. Achieving SDG3 means we need to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030. How can we achieve all of that if we are still facing a serious shortage of health workers in Africa that is undermining access to quality health services to our populations?
Although there have been some strides towards establishing a resilient and robust healthcare system in some African countries, substantial progress is lacking in terms of ensuring an adequate and fair distribution of healthcare workers regionally and nationally.
The Public health workforce shortage in Africa stems from several factors, including underfunding of health system by Member States, inadequate training capacity, poor remuneration of health workers, rapid population growth, international uncheck labor migration, weak governance of the health workforce, lack of career path as well as poor retention of health personnel.
Today, this forum brings us together not just to discuss, but to act. Over the next few days, we will delve into a series of crucial topics like:
- Innovative Financing Models: How can we creatively fund the scale-up of health education and workforce training?
- Policy and Planning: What frameworks can be established or enhanced to support sustainable health workforce growth?
- Retention Strategies: How do we keep talent within our borders and ensure that our investments are long-lasting?
- Technological Advancements: In what ways can we leverage technology to train, support, and expand the reach of our health workers?
- Involvement of the private sector: what can be the incentives we need to give to the private sector for them to contribute to this agenda?
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These discussions are not academic; they are urgent, and they are essential.
Our collective effort is needed to translate our plans into tangible outcomes.
Honorables and dear colleagues,
As we set our sights on these ambitious goals, let us also remember the power of partnerships.
This forum is a testament to what we can achieve together. It is a space where governments, global and regional health partners, private sector, academic institutions, and non-governmental organizations converge with a common purpose.
Your engagement and commitment signal a readiness to embrace innovative solutions and to champion the kind of transformative change that will not only improve health outcomes but will also stimulate economic growth and stability across Africa.
In conclusion,
As we move forward with our sessions, please let us challenge ourselves to think beyond the conventional. Let us commit to action that is bold and to strategies that are inclusive. Let us harness our collective energies to build health systems that are not only equipped to meet current demands but are resilient enough to adapt to future challenges.
Therefore, Africa CDC is proud to be part of the launching of the Africa Health Workforce Investment Charter. It is my hope that this will mobilize and sustain political and financial commitment and foster inclusiveness and collaboration across sectors as part of investment in the development, performance, and retention of the health workforce in AU Member States. Thank you, once again, for your dedication to this cause. Let us make history together by building a healthier, stronger Africa.
6th May 2024, Windhoek, Namibia
