Year in, year out, Ghana suffers a reduction in the population of healthcare workers largely due to poor working conditions among other factors.

Transformative leadership in the health sector has therefore become crucial to curtail the trend.

The Mastercard Foundation Africa Higher Education Health Collaborative, has therefore organized a workshop to equip healthcare workers with the requisite skills to drive transformative growth in the health sector.

26 health personnel completed various modules under the week-long workshop dubbed: Leadership for health systems transformation in developing countries.”

Speaking at the graduation ceremony, Alhaji Dr. Mohammed Bin Ibrahim, a facilitator of the programme, said the leadership and management style of leaders in the health sector need to improve to facilitate development.

“Like many developing countries, we realize that the health sector, like all other sectors, has workers who are doing their best for the people living in the country. But the question is are they best enough?

“We've realized that it requires very good management as well as leadership to move forward in these sectors in order for this country to move,” he said.

He also mentioned the need to merge leadership and management skills to stabilize the sector and get the transformation it requires.

“We know that the main objective of management is to keep the organization in the status quo in that things are orderly and that is good. But to have very transformational and fundamental changes we need leadership skills. Therefore, there is a need to blend leadership and management skills to get our organizations off ground footing as well as getting the fundamental changes that we require,” he said.

The Africa Higher Education Health Collaborative in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation seeks to advance healthcare in Africa through three pillars: Health Employment, Health Entrepreneurship and Health Ecosystem.

The Health Entrepreneurship pillar aims to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and culture that supports entrepreneurs to create meaningful innovations and employment opportunities in the health sector.

The Health Ecosystem pillar also aims to train and prepare a new generation of talented professionals with the broad sets of skills required to drive equitable and inclusive growth.

The Health Employment pillar also aims to expand and improve current capacities to train primary healthcare workers. This workshop is under the auspices of the health employment pillar.

Already, 60 persons have been trained in Health Impact Assessment, Healthcare Industry and Regulatory Affairs.

Suzanna Anaba, a participant said: “I’m really grateful to Mastercard for this opportunity and this training has been a very impactful one.

“I came with a little expectation but I would say the facilitators and the programme at large delivered beyond my expectations and I must say that I really learnt a lot.

“And as the programme is titled, 'strategic leader', I will go out there and make a change in my community and wherever I find myself.”