Duke University, Durham, NC
Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business
Global Health Workforce Alliance
The Health Sector Management program at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, the Duke Global Health Institute, and the Global Health Workforce Alliance (WHO), organized and sponsored the African Health Care Worker Shortage: Forum on Private Sector Responses in November 2007. The conference featured leaders from the private sector who are pursuing innovative, effective ways to respond to the pressing needs of the health workforce in Africa. The forum was organized around the following topics:
analysis of the labor force shortage
impact of the shortage on existing African health-oriented initiatives
incentives and the economics of private sector involvement
future directions and priorities.
An estimated 2.4 million doctors, nurses, and midwives are needed in fifty-seven countries with critical health worker shortages. The challenge is greatest in sub-Saharan Africa, which has only three percent of the world's health workers yet twenty-four percent of the global burden of disease. There is an increasing realization that the private sector can strengthen public health systems by offering resources, knowledge, and skills.
The following pages provide a summary of the event and highlights activities from the three day conference at Duke University.