More than one billion people worldwide do not have access to adequate healthcare. One major reason for this is a serious lack of skilled health workers. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that in 2013 the global shortage of health workers, across all cadres, amounted to 17.4 million. In South East Asia and Africa this shortage is most acute and it undermines the functioning of health systems in these regions. Having too few skilled health workers in regions which have a high disease burden leads to an increased workload and additional stress for the existing workforce. The fact that many of the under-staffed health systems are also chronically underfunded and lack both training opportunities and systems for health workers’ professional development further aggravates the situation which often turns into a vicious cycle.

To address these challenges, German Development Cooperation pursues an intersectoral approach, combining expertise in health system strengthening with measures in the fields of vocational education and training, employment, economy and trade and social development. Supported activities include:

• The education and training programme of BMZ’s “Health in Africa“ initiative, which establishes, equips and expands professional training opportunities for health workers and improves employment conditions for health care personnel
• Collaboration and consultations with WHO on health workforce issues, such as the Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030
• the Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030
• the WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel
• the final report of the High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth
• Hospital partnerships, supporting further training of health workers through the twinning of German and African hospitals