WHO's 2023 health workforce support and safeguards list, which the organization released on Tuesday, includes 55 countries at risk of shortages of health workers needed to reach the UN Sustainable Development Goal target of universal health coverage (UHC) by 2030.
Of these 55 countries, 37 are in the WHO African region, eight in the Pacific region, six in the Eastern Mediterranean region, three in the Southeast Asia region and one (Haiti) in the Americas region.
Angola and the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe are part of this list.
Five countries have been added to the WHO list since the 2020 publication, says the organization in the report, where it points out that the “impact of covid-19 and widespread interruptions in health services resulted in a rapid acceleration in the international recruitment of health professionals” .
"Health workers are the backbone of all health systems and yet 55 countries with some of the weakest health systems in the world do not have enough and many are losing their professionals to international migration", lamented Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO.
Countries included on the WHO list have a UHC service coverage ratio below 55 and health workforce density below the global average, which is 49 physicians, nurses and midwives per 10,000 people.
WHO will update the list every three years, with the next update expected to be published in 2026.
