Health worker shortage could derail development goals.

Senior government and development officials gathered in the Nigerian capital Abuja agreed urgent action was needed to tackle a growing shortage of doctors, nurses and other health workers. They warned this could undermine global efforts to cut poverty and disease. The High-Level Forum meeting on the health Millennium Development Goals, on 2-3 December, focused on strengthening health systems and ways to increase the volume, coordination and efficacy of aid to achieve the goals. Officials agreed that solving the crisis in human resources was key to advancing their development agenda. When aid is unpredictable, we cannot blame planners in our countries for being overcautious, said Nigerian Health Minister Eyitayo Lambo. We simply cannot commit to hiring new doctors and nurses or to putting more people on treatment for AIDS if resources suddenly dry up. We understand donors need reassurance that their money is well spent. But governments also need freedom to set priorities, the minister said. An action agenda submitted to the meeting called for more global solidarity, for example that industrialized countries adopt an ethical approach to recruiting health workers from developing countries. Under the slogan: Train, Retain and Sustain, it called on African countries to improve training, compensation and working conditions of health professionals. The agenda also urged governments to learn from the lessons of countries, such as Argentina, Brazil and Iran, on a number of workforce-related issues, for example: recruitment best practices for training and retaining a sufficient number of health workers. Ministries of labour, finance and education--and not just health--should be involved in health workforce issues. Governments should seize the political momentum created by the Millennium Development Goals to promote their health and development agenda, it said. There are an estimated 750 000 health workers for a population of 682 million people in Africa: 10-15 times lower than in OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, according to two reports prepared for the Forum: Addressing Africa's Health Workforce Crisis: an Avenue for Action and Health Workforce Challenges: Lessons from Country Experiences. The region accounts for only 1.3% of the world's health workforce but 25% of global burden of disease. To achieve the Millennium Development Goals, the minimum level of health workforce density is estimated at 2.5 health workers per 1000 people compared with the current average of 0.8 health workers. Only six unnamed African countries currently have the minimum workforce capacity, according to the meeting documents. If we want a noticeable improvement in reducing maternal mortality rates and improving child health, then we have to have a higher density of health workers, Kerstin Leitner, WHO Assistant Director-General for Sustainable Development and Healthy Environments, told the Bulletin. …