No Country Can Deliver Quality Health Services Without Its Workforce – Health Minister

By Efua Nessa

Ghana has reaffirmed its commitment to strengthening health workforce development across Africa while hosting the Second Africa Health Workforce Investment Forum in Accra. Stakeholders are calling for a shift from policy declarations to tangible action on training, retention, and deployment of health professionals.

Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh emphasized that the forum marks a move from promises to measurable results. He noted that investing in the health workforce goes beyond increasing numbers—it involves ensuring fairness, quality, proper distribution, competence, motivation, and dignity for workers at all levels of care.

“This forum is not simply a continuation of past discussions. It is a call to move from declaration to delivery, from plans to investment, and from commitment to measurable outcomes,” he said.

Ghana’s role in shaping the continental health agenda dates back to regional consultations held in Accra in 2022, which helped build consensus around the African Health Workforce Investment Charter. Minister Akandoh highlighted that Ghana now has the responsibility to demonstrate how these continental principles can be translated into national action.

Health Workforce at the Heart of National Reforms

The Minister linked health workforce investment to Ghana’s broader reforms, including the rollout of free primary health care and the Mahama Cares programme, which supports treatment for non-communicable diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular conditions, and kidney disease. Both initiatives, he noted, rely heavily on a well-trained, fairly distributed, and motivated health workforce.

“No country can deliver effective health services if it cannot plan, train, deploy, and retain the people who make the system work,” he stressed.

Ghana has prioritized evidence-based workforce planning, including a comprehensive health labour market analysis conducted in 2023. The study examined the entire workforce pipeline—from training and employment to deployment and retention. Its findings raised critical policy questions, such as balancing unemployment among trained professionals with shortages in underserved areas and managing ethical labour mobility while safeguarding national health needs.

Following national consultations in 2025, Ghana has begun implementing reforms to strengthen workforce management. These include structured health workforce exchange programmes that support ethical and mutually beneficial mobility, while ensuring the health system remains adequately staffed.

The Ministry of Health is also developing a National Health Workforce Development Plan, positioning human resource investment as a core pillar of national development planning in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and the National Development Planning Commission.

The forum comes amid growing concerns across Africa over health professional shortages, uneven distribution of skilled workers, and rising migration to developed countries. Delegates are expected to focus on practical solutions to improve training systems, strengthen retention strategies, and ensure that investments in health education translate into sustainable health service delivery.