…Also to improve healthcare delivery across West Africa

The Federal Government has called for stronger regional cooperation and practical measures to tackle the increasing migration of health workers and improve healthcare delivery across West Africa.

Minister of State for Health, Dr Adekunle Salako, who made the call at a workshop organised by the West African Health Organization (WAHO) to finalize the Work plan for the motivation and retention of Health Workforce in ECOWAS member countries in Abuja, expressed federal government’s support for regional and continental initiatives aimed at addressing Africa’s healthcare workforce challenges.

Salako said the regional plan to motivate and retain health workers in West Africa will complement a continental initiative targeting two million community health workers across Africa by 2028 and stressed the importance of coordination among governments, professional institutions and regional organisations.

He said the regional meeting on the motivation and retention of health workers in ECOWAS member countries coincided with other initiatives aimed at addressing the continent’s health workforce shortage.

Salako, who was represented by the Director and Head of the Department of Health Planning, Research & Statistics at the Dr Ovuoraye John, said that the gathering aligned with broader efforts to develop sustainable solutions to health workforce shortages across Africa.

He noted that the regional discussions coincided with other medical and health workforce engagements taking place in Abuja, including activities marking the 50th anniversary of the West African College of Physicians and preparations for a high-level African Union forum on the community health workforce.

According to him, the convergence of the initiatives demonstrated the need for African countries to coordinate their approaches rather than pursue separate and disconnected strategies.

He explained that while the regional work plan focuses on motivating and retaining healthcare professionals, continental initiatives are also exploring ways to strengthen the community health workforce to meet Africa’s growing healthcare needs.

Salako noted that the different initiatives should complement one another, taking into account the varying healthcare needs and workforce challenges of individual countries.

He expressed confidence that stronger collaboration at national, regional and continental levels would improve efforts to train, motivate and retain healthcare personnel.

The meeting is expected to contribute to the development of practical measures for addressing healthcare workforce shortages, strengthening professional capacity and improving access to quality healthcare across West Africa.

He stated that the regional work plan would focus on motivating and retaining health professionals, while the continental initiative would explore additional approaches to expanding the community health workforce, taking into account the different needs of individual countries.

Salako observed that the training institutions would complement these efforts by producing specialists and other health professionals equipped to serve their communities.

He said, “We now know that we cannot do it alone in silos. We need every resource available to us as a country to get it right. The health workforce is the challenge that we are facing on our continent,” .

The minister expressed the Federal Government’s satisfaction that the three initiatives were taking place around the same time in Nigeria, describing the convergence as an opportunity to align regional and continental priorities.

On public health security, he urged participants from other African countries to observe Nigeria’s Ebola prevention protocols, saying the country had continued to allow public gatherings despite recording a confirmed case.

He said Nigeria had recorded no additional cases since the initial confirmation, adding that contact tracing had been expanded to 53 people as of Sunday.

According to the representative, all 53 contacts had been monitored, while those considered at risk had been tested and returned negative results.

The official also said the index patient was recovering, though earlier evacuated to Switzerland earlier in the day, expressing confidence in the country’s containment measures and encouraging other African countries to strengthen their preparedness.

He stressed that movement between countries was essential to regional trade and cooperation, making it important for governments to work together to address public health threats while maintaining regional ties.

Also speaking , the representative of the West African College of Surgeons (WACS), Prof Foluso Owoeye, called on West African governments to urgently address the migration of healthcare professionals by improving working conditions, strengthening healthcare infrastructure and creating better opportunities for career advancement.

He warned that the continued loss of trained medical personnel to other parts of the world threatens the sustainability, quality and accessibility of healthcare delivery across the sub-region.

Owoeye described the growing exodus of healthcare professionals, popularly known in Nigeria as japa, as a major challenge that must be tackled through practical policies capable of encouraging medical personnel to remain and practise in their home countries.

He stated that it is unacceptable for West African countries to commit substantial financial and institutional resources to training healthcare professionals only for their expertise to benefit other countries while local communities continue to experience shortages of skilled personnel.

“We cannot continue to train healthcare professionals for the benefit of the rest of the world while our own communities remain underserved,” he said.

Owoeye emphasized that the strength of any healthcare system depends not only on modern facilities and sophisticated technology but also on the competence, commitment, motivation and availability of the people responsible for delivering healthcare services.

He stressed that healthcare workforce retention should not be treated merely as an employment issue but as a strategic investment in human capital and the long-term development of the region’s health systems.

Owoeye identified improved infrastructure, modern medical equipment, opportunities for specialist training, mentorship, research and professional advancement as essential measures for motivating healthcare workers to remain in the sub-region.

He urged policymakers to move beyond broad declarations of intent and develop realistic, measurable and implementable strategies with clear targets, timelines and institutional accountability.

Owoeye also called for stronger regional cooperation among ECOWAS member states to promote equitable workforce distribution, professional mobility, mutual support and the sharing of medical expertise.

He emphasised the need for governments and health institutions to involve healthcare workers directly in developing retention policies, warning that programmes designed without adequately considering the aspirations, frustrations and lived experiences of medical personnel might fail to achieve their objectives.

“Policies developed without adequate consideration of the aspirations, frustrations and lived experiences of those expected to implement them may ultimately fail to achieve their intended objectives,” he said.

He reaffirmed WACS’s commitment to collaborating with WAHO and national governments on professional training, workforce retention, mentorship, research and policy advocacy.

Owoeye said the success of the regional initiative should ultimately be measured by its impact on healthcare professionals and the communities they serve, rather than the quality of the policy document produced at the workshop.

“Our ultimate success will not be measured by the elegance of the document we produce at this workshop, but by the number of healthcare professionals who, because of its implementation, choose to stay, serve and thrive in our sub-region,” he said.

Owoeye commended WAHO for its leadership and commitment to strengthening health systems across ECOWAS member states, expressing hope that the workshop would produce actionable recommendations capable of improving workforce motivation and healthcare outcomes.

Earlier, the WAHO Director General, Prof Palokinam Pitch, said the authorities had demonstrated renewed commitment to addressing the region’s health workforce challenges.

He said the Authority of Heads of State had directed that the document be completed to guide health workforce retention planning over the next five, 10, 15 and 20 years before its presentation to the Assembly of Health Ministers for consideration and implementation.

Represented by Professor Joseph Olorunda, WAHO’s Director of Public Health and Research, Pitch said work had already begun on harmonising training curricula, with 58 curricula developed across different disciplines, including subspecialties.

According to him, the harmonisation would make it easier for professionals trained in one ECOWAS member state to practise and provide services in another.

He said the region needed long-term workforce planning to address the departure of health professionals at a time when populations faced growing health challenges, including non-communicable diseases and the effects of climate change.

On his part, WAHO’s Head of Regional Council of Health Training Personnel Professor Kofi Balogun, noted that retaining health workers required governments to provide adequate remuneration, suitable accommodation and supportive working environments.

Balogun stressed that the objective should not be merely to train health professionals but also to ensure they remained available to serve communities across West Africa.

WAHO tasked the meeting with a regional framework to improve health workers’ welfare, address staff shortages and migration, and strengthen workforce planning across ECOWAS member states.

While presenting the objectives and expected outcomes of the meeting, Professor Joseph Olorunda, WAHO’s Director of Public Health and Research, identified poor remuneration, delayed salaries, inadequate working conditions, limited career progression, uneven workforce distribution and migration as major challenges undermining healthcare delivery.

WAHO stressed that infrastructure and technology alone cannot guarantee quality healthcare without adequately trained and motivated personnel, citing estimates that Africa accounts for 24 per cent of the global disease burden but only three per cent of its health workforce.

The presentation also referenced projections that Africa would need an additional 4.2 million health workers by 2030, and a 2025 UK government report said to show that 85,000 to 90,000 Nigerian-trained doctors and nurses were registered in the UK.

The proposed framework is expected to promote long-term workforce planning, harmonise training curricula and facilitate professional mobility across ECOWAS member states. It also calls for evidence-based staffing plans, particularly for underserved communities.

Other priorities include improved remuneration, supportive working environments and career development opportunities to encourage health workers to remain in the region.

The sub-regional health body urged governments to treat workforce retention as a public health priority and recognise health workers as essential national and regional assets.