The health worker shortage in Africa: are enough physicians and nurses being trained?
Yohannes Kinfu, Mario R Dal Poz, Hugo Mercer & David B Evans
Volume 87, Number 3, March 2009, 225-230
Table 3. Current density of physicians, nurses and midwives and required rate of workforce growth according to population growth rates in 12 African countriesa
| Country | Density of physicians, nurses and midwives per 1000 population | Annual net rate of growth |
Population growth rate % | Required workforce growth per annum % | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scenario Ib | Scenario IIc | |||||||||
| Central African Republic | 0.52 | –0.7 | –2.3 | 1.8 | 13.4 | |||||
| Côte d’Ivoire | 0.73 | 7.5 | 5.9 | 2.2 | 10.4 | |||||
| Democratic Republic of the Congo | 0.64 | –1.3 | –2.9 | 2.5 | 11.6 | |||||
| Ethiopia | 0.24 | 8.7 | 7.1 | 2.6 | 20.4 | |||||
| Kenya | 1.28 | –2.5 | –4.1 | 2.4 | 5.2 | |||||
| Liberia | 0.33 | 4.6 | 3.0 | 4.6 | 17.7 | |||||
| Madagascar | 0.61 | 4.0 | 2.4 | 3.0 | 12.0 | |||||
| Rwanda | 0.48 | –1.0 | –2.6 | 4.9 | 14.2 | |||||
| Sierra Leone | 0.39 | 1.7 | 0.1 | 2.6 | 16.1 | |||||
| Uganda | 0.81 | –2.3 | –3.9 | 2.3 | 9.4 | |||||
| United Republic of Tanzania | 0.37 | 4.1 | 2.5 | 3.2 | 16.4 | |||||
| Zambia | 2.15 | –3.8 | –5.4 | 2.1 | 0.5 | |||||
| Total | 0.64 | 3.2 | –1.6 | 2.7 | 11.6 | |||||
a Authors’ calculations are based on a WHO survey (available at: http://www.afro.who.int/hrh-observatory/documentcentre/questionnnare/quesb_health_training_institutions.xls).
b Scenario I uses country-specific estimates of outflows due to mortality and retirement and an additional outflow estimate of 1.5% per annum due to resignation and dismissal obtained from a Zambian case study.
c Scenario II follows a procedure similar to the one used for Scenario I but uses a higher rate of outflow (2.3%) due to resignation and dismissal obtained from a Mozambican case study.