Africa's plan to put three million more health workers into jobs by 2035 is aimed at reducing the distance millions of people travel to receive healthcare, a senior World Health Organization official says.

Health Workforce Team Leader at the WHO, Prof James Avoka Asamani, says the target was developed after an assessment showed that the continent still faces a major gap between the health workers it has and those it needs.

He told JoyNews Science and Climate Journalist Mahmud Mohammed-Nurudeen in a Zoom interview on Thursday, 27 August 2026, that the three-million figure is intended to cut the workforce shortage by about half over the next 10 years.

The interview followed the adoption on Wednesday of the Africa Health Workforce Agenda 2026–2035 by African health ministers.

The agenda commits countries to training, employing and retaining at least three million additional health workers within the next decade.

Why three million?

Prof Asamani says the figure is based on work that began in 2022, when the WHO carried out what it calls an epidemiology-based needs analysis.

The assessment looked at countries' disease burden and populations, as well as the ability of their existing health systems to provide services.

That analysis initially estimated that Africa needed 6.1 million more health workers.

Prof Asamani says the estimated gap has since fallen to 5.85 million. But when the WHO and African countries were developing a 10-year workforce plan, they considered both the ability of countries to train health workers and their ability to finance them.

“The plausible figures were around 3 million, which is basically to cut down the shortage by half within 10 years.”

That figure became the centrepiece of the new Workforce Agenda 2035. But Prof Asamani stresses that the commitment is not simply to train three million people.

“The target is all countries contribute their quota to training and employing and retaining at least 3 million more health workers within 10 years.”

What will it mean for ordinary people?

For someone who has had to travel for hours to find a doctor, nurse or midwife, Prof Asamani says the significance of the target should be measured in terms of access.

“If we are able to collectively put three more million health workers to jobs, then your distance will cut.”

He says people should be able to receive healthcare closer to where they live. “You will be able to receive care near your home or near where you live when you need it and without necessarily spending a fortune.”

But he says the situation in many parts of Africa remains critical. “There are several millions of Africans today who do not have access to a qualified health worker.”

According to Prof Asamani, Africa currently has only 46% of the health workers needed to meet its health needs. This shortage exists alongside another problem which is, almost one million trained health workers are unemployed.

Prof Asamani says the apparent contradiction is caused by a failure to connect training with job creation. “It is not a reflection of surplus health workers. In fact, it is a reflection of shortage of jobs.”

He says many health systems depend heavily on government financing, meaning countries must plan how many people they train alongside their capacity to employ them. “The mismatch at the moment is due to a disconnect in planning the training and the job creation.”

He says governments should also encourage the private sector to employ some trained health professionals.

The WHO estimates that African countries would need, on average, a 35% increase in health workforce compensation budgets specifically to recruit new health workers.

Training more workers is not enough

Even if the three million additional health workers are trained and employed, Prof Asamani says countries will still have to address where those workers choose to work.

Rural and underserved communities often struggle to attract and retain health professionals. The WHO is proposing what Prof Asamani describes as a rural pipeline approach.

Under the approach, people from rural communities are prioritised for training and students are exposed to rural practice during their education.

The expectation is that they will then be more willing to work in rural areas. Financial incentives are another part of the strategy. “Paying those who work in rural area an additional incentive and giving them accelerated career progression is one other incentive we know.”

But Prof Asamani says governments must look beyond salaries. He points to quality accommodation, water, roads and schools for workers' children as other factors that influence whether health workers remain in underserved areas.

“All of these need to be addressed as a package, not as siloed interventions.”

He says local authorities can contribute by providing decent accommodation for doctors, nurses and midwives needed in their communities.

Prof Asamani says the investment required to substantially reduce the workforce gap is estimated at US$4 to US$6 per person each year for workforce recruitment and salaries. He says the potential economic return makes the investment worthwhile.

The WHO estimates, according to Prof Asamani, that the direct economic benefit could be about 10 times the investment, while the broader social return could be about 33 times the investment.

He says governments should be the main source of funding, including through improved domestic revenue mobilisation and better allocation of existing health resources.

Africa currently spends roughly 7% of national spending on health, he says, compared with the 15% commitment made by African heads of state in 2001.

There could also be savings from improving efficiency. “In Africa, 1 out of every $5 spent on health goes to waste, inefficiency.”

Prof Asamani says removing inefficiencies, including so-called ghost names on payrolls in some countries, could free resources to employ trained health workers.

Zimbabwe offers one example

Prof Asamani says countries will need cooperation between health, finance, education, labour, public service and local government authorities.

The private sector, labour unions and development partners should also be involved.

He points to Zimbabwe, where a workforce compact signed in 2024 has, according to the latest update received by WHO, contributed to the creation of more than 14,000 jobs for health workers.

He says the measures have also helped to stabilise health worker migration in the country.

For Prof Asamani, the success of Africa's three-million-worker commitment should not be judged by the number of people who receive health qualifications. “By 2035, we should not be counting how many we have trained,” he said.

Instead, countries should ask how many health workers are actually working, whether people can access services close to where they live and whether health outcomes have improved.

He says life expectancy should be one of the measures. “We should look at how much life expectancy Africans have gained in addition to what we currently have today.”

The three-million target, therefore, is not simply about producing more doctors, nurses and midwives.

It is about getting trained professionals into jobs, keeping them in the places where they are needed and making healthcare more accessible to the people they are expected to serve.

Prof Asamani's final message is directed at governments, partners and communities saying health workers are there for everyone and “they are here to serve you and to make you healthy.”