Ministers have endorsed the Africa Health Workforce Agenda 2026–2035, committing to employ three million additional health workers by 2035 to strengthen health systems and expand access to quality healthcare across the continent.

The agenda, adopted at the 76th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa, represents a shift from focusing mainly on training more health workers to strengthening the health labour market through improved planning, education, employment and retention.

It provides countries with a roadmap for strengthening health labour markets through better workforce planning, expansion of quality education, creation of employment opportunities and retention of skilled personnel in underserved areas.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the commitment comes amid a significant health workforce gap in Africa, despite substantial growth in the number of health workers over the past decade.
The organisation said the continent’s health workforce had increased to an estimated 5.72 million workers in 2024, but this represented only about 46 per cent of the workforce required to meet the Region’s health needs.

It warned that without decisive action, Africa could face a shortage of more than six million health workers by 2035, potentially further limiting access to essential health services.

At the same time, the continent is experiencing what the WHO described as a labour market paradox, with health facilities facing shortages while an estimated one million trained health professionals remain unemployed.

The agency said newly qualified health workers were particularly affected, noting that more than half of newly qualified nurses, doctors and midwives in several countries were unable to secure employment soon after graduation.

It stressed that the situation underscored the need to align health workforce education with job creation, sustainable financing and long-term workforce planning.

The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Mohamed Janabi, said the adoption of the Agenda demonstrated the collective commitment of African countries to transforming the health workforce as a foundation for stronger health systems.

Janabi said educating health workers was only the beginning, stressing that countries must also create employment opportunities, provide support and establish conditions that would enable health workers to serve, develop and thrive in areas where they were most needed.

He said the agenda would help translate evidence into action and political commitment into sustained investment in Africa’s health workforce, ultimately improving the health and well-being of the population.

The agenda also calls for coordinated action among the health, education, finance, labour and public service sectors to ensure that investments in health workforce development translate into improved access to quality healthcare.

The WHO said investment in the health workforce also offered significant economic and social benefits. It estimated that closing Africa’s health workforce gap would require additional investment of about $4 to $6 per person annually, while generating substantial economic and social returns.

According to evidence cited by the WHO, every dollar invested in the health workforce could generate up to $10 in economic returns and about 30 times its value in broader social benefits through healthier populations, increased productivity and stronger economies.

The new agenda builds on the Africa Health Workforce Investment Charter and reaffirms Member States’ commitment to making health workforce investment a driver of stronger health systems, healthier populations and sustainable development.

The WHO said the success of the agenda would ultimately depend not only on the policies adopted, but also on the extent to which health workers were empowered to serve their communities and more people gained access to the quality health services they needed.