From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
Africa will need to recruit, train and retain millions of community health workers to close its widening healthcare gap, with the continent’s projected health workforce shortage expected to reach 5.85 million by 2030.
To address the challenge, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), in collaboration with the Nigerian government and continental partners, will convene a high-level forum in Abuja from October 28 to 30 to accelerate efforts to recruit, train, deploy and retain two million community health workers across Africa by 2030.
The forum, to be held under the political leadership of President Bola Tinubu, African Union Champion for Human Resources for Health and the Community Health Delivery Partnership, is expected to bring together African ministers of health and finance, senior government officials, African Union institutions, development partners and community health representatives.
According to a media advisory issued by Africa CDC on Wednesday, the meeting will focus on translating continental commitments into concrete national actions through sustainable financing, workforce development, harmonised standards and costed national plans to expand community health services.
Africa had an estimated 1.15 million community health workers in 2024, underscoring the scale of the challenge facing the continent as countries seek to strengthen primary healthcare and prepare for future public health emergencies.
Recent Ebola and mpox outbreaks have further exposed the importance of a well-trained, adequately resourced and equitably distributed health workforce, particularly at the community level, where health workers play critical roles in disease detection, surveillance and outbreak response.
The three-day forum is expected to culminate in a high-level ministerial session on October 30, where political and financing commitments will be sought to accelerate the development of Africa’s community health workforce.
Key initiatives scheduled for launch include the Continental Community Health Acceleration Plan, the Continental Community Health Programme Scorecard and the next cycle of the Continental Community Health Landscape Survey.
Participants will also work towards developing costed national community health worker acceleration plans for 2026 to 2030, alongside discussions on domestic financing, employment, deployment and retention of health workers.
The meeting is expected to establish continental priorities for increased investment in the health workforce and stronger accountability for commitments made by governments and their partners.
Beyond addressing staffing shortages, the forum will examine how community health workers can improve access to primary healthcare, strengthen maternal and child health services, reach children who have not received any routine vaccination and improve preparedness and response to disease outbreaks.
The initiative comes amid growing recognition that stronger community-level healthcare systems are essential to closing gaps in access to essential health services, particularly in underserved and hard-to-reach communities.
The Abuja meeting is expected to provide a platform for African governments and development partners to agree on practical measures to turn the continent’s community health workforce ambitions into funded national programmes and measurable results.