Nigeria and ECOWAS are seeking better pay, improved working conditions and stronger regional cooperation to tackle health worker shortages and brain drain.
The Federal Government has called on West African countries to strengthen cooperation in addressing the shortage of healthcare professionals, as the migration of doctors, nurses and other medical personnel continues to place pressure on health systems across the region.
The government stressed that improving salaries, working conditions, professional development and workforce planning would be essential to retaining skilled personnel and ensuring that citizens have access to quality healthcare.
The call comes as Africa pursues an ambitious target of deploying two million community health workers by 2028, amid concerns about the continent’s ability to meet its growing healthcare needs with its existing workforce.
Minister of State for Health, Dr Adekunle Salako, made the appeal on Monday in Abuja while opening a meeting convened to review a regional work plan for motivating and retaining health workers across member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
The meeting brought together stakeholders to discuss practical measures for improving the welfare of healthcare professionals, harmonising training standards and developing sustainable solutions to the movement of skilled workers out of the region.
Salako said cooperation between countries was necessary to address the challenges facing Africa’s healthcare sector, noting that isolated national efforts would not be sufficient to resolve the problem.
“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,” he said.
The gathering also coincided with activities marking the 50th anniversary of the West African College of Physicians and a high-level African Union forum on the community health workforce in Abuja.
ECOWAS seeks long-term solution to workforce challenges
The proposed regional framework is expected to provide a common direction for ECOWAS member states in developing policies to recruit, train, motivate and retain healthcare professionals.
Among its objectives are improving working conditions, addressing uneven workforce distribution, strengthening workforce planning and encouraging cooperation on professional training and mobility.
The plan is also expected to reflect the different circumstances of individual countries while establishing shared regional priorities.
Speaking on behalf of the West African College of Surgeons, Professor Foluso Owoeye emphasised that the effectiveness of any healthcare system depended on more than hospitals, medical equipment and technological advancements.
He explained that competent and motivated health professionals remained central to delivering reliable medical services, warning that shortages of qualified personnel could undermine investments in healthcare infrastructure.
Owoeye identified the migration of medical professionals, commonly described as brain drain or “japa” in Nigeria, as a significant threat to healthcare delivery across West Africa.
He noted that professional institutions invested considerable resources in training medical personnel but risked losing the benefits of those investments when trained professionals left for countries offering better working conditions and career opportunities.
According to him, governments and other stakeholders must address the factors driving migration if the region hopes to build a stable and sustainable healthcare workforce.
He called for the regional work plan to contain measurable targets, practical interventions, realistic implementation timelines and clearly assigned responsibilities.
Owoeye also advocated stronger connections between training and staff retention through specialist education, mentorship, research opportunities and career advancement.
He added that health workers’ experiences and concerns should inform policies designed to encourage them to remain in service.
The college, he said, was prepared to collaborate with the West African Health Organisation (WAHO) and national governments on professional training, capacity development, research, mentorship and policy advocacy.
Poor remuneration, delayed salaries raise concerns
Earlier, WAHO Director-General Professor Palokinam T. Pitch said regional authorities had renewed their commitment to addressing the difficulties confronting healthcare workers.
Represented by Professor Joseph Olorunda, the organisation’s Director of Public Health and Research, Pitch disclosed that the Authority of Heads of State had directed that the regional policy document be completed to guide workforce retention planning over five-, 10-, 15- and 20-year periods.
He said the document would be submitted to the Assembly of Health Ministers for consideration and implementation.
The long-term planning approach is intended to help countries anticipate staffing requirements, develop appropriate policies and establish sustainable measures for retaining professionals.
Olorunda’s presentation identified poor remuneration, delayed salary payments, inadequate working environments, limited career progression, unequal distribution of health workers and international migration as major obstacles to workforce development.
These challenges can make it difficult for healthcare institutions, particularly those serving rural and underserved communities, to attract and retain qualified personnel.
The presentation stressed the need for evidence-based staffing plans that consider the specific healthcare requirements of different communities.
Such planning would help governments identify areas facing severe personnel shortages and determine how available workers could be distributed more effectively.
Africa faces growing demand for health professionals
Figures presented at the meeting highlighted the scale of the continent’s healthcare workforce problem.
Africa accounts for approximately 24 per cent of the global disease burden but has only three per cent of the world’s health workforce, according to the estimates cited during the presentation.
The continent is projected to require an additional 4.2 million health workers by 2030, underlining the scale of the recruitment and retention challenge facing governments.
The shortage has implications for access to essential medical services, particularly in communities where healthcare facilities already operate with limited personnel.
While expanding professional training remains important, stakeholders at the meeting emphasised that producing more graduates will not solve the problem if countries cannot provide conditions that encourage them to remain in the workforce.
The proposed regional framework is therefore expected to combine training initiatives with measures addressing staff welfare, professional development and workforce distribution.
Training standards to be harmonised across West Africa
Olorunda also disclosed that WAHO was working to harmonise training curricula across ECOWAS member states, with 58 curricula developed across different disciplines, including subspecialties.
The initiative is designed to reduce differences in professional training standards and make it easier for qualified personnel trained in one member country to practise in another, subject to applicable professional requirements.
Greater compatibility between training systems could improve cooperation among countries and make regional deployment of healthcare professionals more practical.
However, stakeholders also stressed the importance of ensuring that professional mobility does not worsen staffing shortages in countries already struggling to retain their medical personnel.
Any regional approach, therefore, would need to balance opportunities for professional movement with effective workforce planning and fair distribution.
Better welfare considered essential for retention
Also speaking, Professor Kofi Balogun, Head of WAHO’s Regional Council of Health Training Personnel, said improving the welfare of healthcare workers was critical to addressing migration.
He highlighted adequate remuneration, suitable accommodation and supportive working environments as important factors in encouraging professionals to continue serving their communities.
His position reinforced the need for governments to look beyond recruitment figures and consider the everyday conditions that influence workers’ decisions to remain in their jobs.
The discussions in Abuja highlighted a shared concern among regional stakeholders: Africa’s healthcare challenges cannot be addressed sustainably without investing in the people responsible for delivering medical services.
For Nigeria and other ECOWAS countries, the next major test will be translating the proposed regional framework into practical policies that improve working conditions, strengthen professional training and reduce avoidable workforce losses.
The success of the initiative will ultimately depend on the commitment of governments and regional institutions to implement agreed measures and sustain investment in healthcare personnel over the coming years.
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