Road Map for Scaling Up the Human Resources for Health for Improved Health Service Delivery in the African Region 2012–2025
Ensuring the availability of sufficient numbers of qualified health workers in the right place is essential for delivering quality health services to the population. Existing weaknesses in health systems including shortage of skilled human resources in most countries is recognized as a major impediment to delivery of essential interventions and progress towards achieving health objectives in the African Region.
Of the 46 countries in the Region, 36 have critical shortage of HRH,8 with only about 0.8 physicians, nurses and midwives per 1000 population while the minimum acceptable density threshold is 2.3 per 1000 population. The estimated shortage of doctors, nurses and midwives in the Region was about 820 000 staff in 2006. When all categories of health workers are included, the shortfall is estimated at 1.4 million.
