Roughly one million trained nurses, doctors and midwives in Africa have no job, while clinics across the same continent run short of staff. Health ministers meeting in Addis Ababa decided in late August 2026 that this contradiction was the place to start.
Ministers took the decision at the WHO Regional Committee for Africa’s 76th session. The ten-year plan aims to educate, employ and keep at least three million more health workers by 2035. It is called the Africa Health Workforce Agenda 2026-2035, though UN News reported it under the name Health Workforce Management Programme in Africa.
More workers, still not enough
The raw figures show progress and a gap at the same time. The region’s health workforce stood at 1.6 million in 2013 and reached 5.72 million in 2024, according to Down To Earth. Even so, Africa has about 46% of the workers it needs. Without action, the shortfall could pass 6 million by 2035. The new plan aims to halve it.
Then there is the jobs problem. Down To Earth put the number of unemployed trained professionals at 943,000 and the average health worker unemployment rate at 27 per cent. Among new graduates, between 46 and 69 per cent are jobless. In several countries over half of freshly qualified doctors, nurses and midwives struggle to land a job soon after training. WHO says the cause is training that is not matched to job creation, steady funding or public-sector planning.
Quality is a worry too. WHO estimates that health workers reach the right diagnosis in about 62 per cent of cases, and give the right treatment in only 40 per cent of those.
What the plan changes
The agenda shifts focus from producing more graduates to looking at the whole cycle: planning, education, employment and retention. It follows the Regional Roadmap 2012-2025 and rests on the earlier Investment Charter. Two targets are set for 2035. Health professionals per 10,000 people should rise from 27 to 47, and average unemployment among health workers should fall from 27% to 13%.
“Our Member States have recognised that training health professionals is only the beginning,” said Dr. Mohamed Yakub Janabi, WHO’s chief for the region. He said the programme “turns evidence into concrete action and political commitment into sustainable investments.”
The plan asks ministries of health, education, finance, labour and the public service to pull in the same direction, so spending turns into real access to care. WHO also made the money case. Closing the gap would cost $4 to $6 more per person a year, and each dollar invested could bring back as much as $10 in economic returns.
The regional committee meeting ran through 28 August, and ministers also backed a separate regional strategy on early childhood.
Sources
- African countries commit to train and retain 3 million more health workers by 2035 | WHO | Regional Office for Africa
- Africa Unveils 10-Year Plan to Add 3 Million Health Workers and Halve Workforce Shortage by 2035
- More health workers, stronger systems: Africa’s new ambitious goal — Global Issues
