Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
Director General of Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Dr. Jean Kaseya, has said Africa currently has about 1.2 million trained community health workers for population of 1.53 billion people across 55 member states, describing figure as grossly inadequate.
Kaseya, who spoke on Day Two of High-Level Forum on Fit-for-Purpose Health Workforce in Abuja, said the continent needs to train two million community health workers by 2030 to tap into its huge youth population and strengthen health systems.
“We need to train more, two million, that is our advocacy as we are all aware. It’s a continent whereby close to 70 percent of our population are youths. And for us to be able to tap into those enormous resources, we need to work on that. First of all, a ten-year plan. We are just meeting roughly 1.1, 1.2 million community health workers that we train for a population of 1.53 billion people, 55 member states. That is not enough,” he said.
He said Heads of State and Government recalibrated target and gave themselves 2030 deadline to train two million community health workers, and appointed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Champion for Human Resources for Health and Community Health Delivery Partnership to lead advocacy.
“The momentum is with us. President Tinubu has provided that leadership. It’s now for us at tactical and frontline level to ensure we carry vision forward. Come 2030 two million community health workers,” Kaseya said.
He listed three reasons the agenda is critical: continent of repeated recurrent disease outbreaks where community health system that provides day-to-day essential services is same system that will play role during outbreaks; need to achieve Sustainable Development Goals with just four years left, with most member states not on track; and need for climate resilient primary health system.
He said Africa CDC has developed Continental Acceleration Plan with investment case showing enormous return on investment, with about $19 return for every one dollar invested, which is nowhere near what continent spends on outbreaks.
Kaseya said going forward, several implications must be addressed: global health architecture must be efficient with one country, one plan, one Africa approach; need to leverage digital technology to move community health workers away from paper filing; need to reverse situation where 85 percent of community health workers are financed by external partners to ensure sustainability through domestic resource mobilisation; need to build capacity for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response; and need to ensure commodity security through Africa Pooled Procurement Mechanism approved by Heads of State to bring down cost and make PHC deliver.
He called for collective action to ensure strong PHC that is community centred, climate resilient, pandemic ready, able to protect against financial catastrophe through domestic financing and national health insurance, and able to guarantee health security and sovereignty for 55 member states.
In his remarks at ministerial segment, Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Iziaq Salako, apologised for adjustment in programme to accommodate launch of Continental Implementation Plan by Vice President.
He said launch is significant milestone and thanked delegates for patience.
Salako said ministerial segment should achieve four outcomes: common understanding of why it is urgent and necessary to accelerate progress towards two million community health workers, demonstrating appreciation of mandate of AU Champion President Tinubu; receive update from Community Health Delivery Partnership including status of national plans, proposed 12 to 18 months country roadmaps, and partner financing commitments and continental priorities.
Others include registration of concrete domestic commitments in financing, payroll reforms, policy measures and implementation actions and commit to developing or updating national community health plans within next 12 to 18 months; and endorse continental ask and country roadmaps as basis for next steps and agree on text for Abuja Communique for adoption October 30.
He said forum also disseminates two important continental instruments: Continental Community Health Programme Scorecard and standardised continental polyvalent community health worker curriculum, urging delegates to translate technical consensus into political commitments and political commitments into action.