Africa Endorses 10-Year Strategy to Add 3 Million Health Workers by 2035

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — African nations formally endorsed a comprehensive 10-year health workforce strategy aimed at training and deploying three million additional healthcare professionals by 2035. Bolstering the africa health workforce expansion agenda, this consensus addresses a projected continental deficit of 6.1 million health personnel by 2030. Although the African health workforce grew from 1.6 million in 2013 to 5.1 million in 2022, rapid population growth and system constraints require urgent additional investments.

Supported by technical and financial commitments from the UK Department of Health and Social Care and the Global Fund, designated national implementation teams in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Rwanda are leading country-level deployment. The 10-year roadmap establishes a structured framework from 2026 through 2035 to ensure sustainable healthcare delivery across the continent.

Strategy Pillars & Projected Health Workforce Growth

The endorsed framework details five strategic pillars designed to scale training, employment, and retention:

Priority Pillar	Operational Objective	Key Implementation Mechanism
Governance & Planning	Institutional oversight & policy alignment	National health workforce steering teams
Education Reform	Modernizing training to practice-based models	Competency-based clinical curricula
Employment & Retention	Curbing brain drain & health worker migration	Africa Health Workforce Investment Charter
Labor Intelligence	Real-time planning & accountability systems	Continental health labor data tracking
Workforce Target	Deploy 3 million additional personnel by 2035	Task-shifting & rural incentive programs

Driving the Africa Health Workforce Expansion Strategy Through Education and Retention

Executing the africa health workforce expansion framework relies heavily on transitioning health training institutions toward practice-ready clinical competencies. Beyond foundational education, long-term retention strategies focus on competitive compensation, structured career advancement, improved workplace safety, and supportive management to mitigate international migration. Furthermore, task-shifting protocols will empower mid-level and community health workers to handle routine care, freeing specialized physicians for complex clinical cases.

To ensure equitable distribution, member states are establishing targeted financial and professional incentives to encourage health worker deployment to underserved rural and conflict-affected regions. Success over the coming decade will be evaluated through increased domestic budget allocations, rising healthcare worker employment rates, expanded academic intake capacities, and overall improvements in population health outcomes across the continent.

Why It Matters: Africa’s 10-year workforce expansion targets three million health workers by 2035, addressing a critical continental shortage constraining health system performance and disease prevention capacity.

Source: WHO Regional Office for Africa, September 2026,