Principles of the Africa health workforce investment charter to stimulate sustainable health workforce investments.

Abstract

Despite improvements in health workforce density, the World Health Organization (WHO) African Region Member States an additional 6.1 million additional health workers by 2030 to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) and health sustainable development goals (SDGs) targets and ensure health security. Additional investments are needed for their education, employment, and retention. However, most countries cannot meet this and require support to secure increased sustainable long-term domestic and external investments in the health workforce to strengthen health systems as part of broader health and national development efforts to improve health, economic, and social outcomes. The Africa Health Workforce Investment Charter, launched by the WHO Africa Regional Office in May 2024, outlines a set of key principles that countries can adapt to stimulate and secure the multisectoral domestic and external investments needed to reduce Africa's health workforce shortages by 2030. This would ultimately increase access and availability of health care workers and primary healthcare services, especially in rural and underserved communities. The Investment Charter sets out the following key principles for coordinating and sustaining investments in education, employment, retention, and public health functions: (1) Enabling government leadership and stewardship; (2) Applying evidence-informed prioritisation investment; (3) Aligning multisectoral investments through partnership and collaboration; (4) Stimulating more and better investments; and (5) Securing sustainable health workforce investments.