WHO Hails UK Government For Committing Two Million Pounds To Strengthening Health Workforce In Nigeria
The World Health Organization, WHO, has welcomed a new funding commitment made by the United Kingdom’s Department of Health and Social Care to support Nigeria in strengthening her health workforce in the vision of achieving Universal Health Coverage
The £2 million grant will cover a period of two years to support the government of Nigeria to optimize performance, quality, and impact of the health workforce through evidence-informed policies and strategies.
The UK has, so far, provided a multi-million-pound to boost support to healthcare, staff recruitment and retention in three African countries – Kenya, Nigeria, and Ghana so as to support resilience against global health challenges.
Nigeria's health system like many countries in the global south has been bedveiled with challenges to having a resilient health system that is able to provide quality health services, promote health and prevent diseases.
COVID-19 pandemic which directly impacted the availability of health workers to provide quality services across the country further exacerbated these challenges.
This 2-year HRH project aims to support government at national and sub-national levels, regulatory bodies, professional associations, and other key stakeholders to develop transformative strategies for scaling up the quantity and quality of health workers, including competency-based curricula development and reviews.
The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Dr Richard Montgomery, had said, a skilled, well-motivated and adequate health workforce is critical for Nigeria to end preventable deaths and build resilience against global threats and implement interventions in Nigeria as the UK International Development funding aligns with the Nigerian health workforce strategic plan and will help the country upskill its workers, and improve health outcomes in the long run.
The project is expected to draw on the technical capacity of WHO to strengthen health systems including experience of implementing similar projects with appreciable results in the past.
According to WHO's Representative in Nigeria, Dr Walter Mulombo, the strength of every health system reflects the capacity and adequacy of its health workforce, which are necessary to deliver quality services to address population health needs.
He said for a resilient and effective health system, Nigeria must have adequate numbers of health workers who are fit for purpose, motivated to perform, and equitably distributed across the subnational levels to enhance equity in access to their services by the population in need.
Dr. Mulombo, emphasised that through the UK government’s generous support through WHO, they will deploy the technical support from the three levels of the organization to support the development of evidence-based policies and strategies, capacity building and management for improved planning and management of Nigeria’s health workforce.
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