ABSTRACT
The centrality of health as a key determinant of economic growth, labour force productivity, and poverty reduction is increasingly recognized and growing in prominence in development discussions by the global community. Globally, there is awareness of a lack of capacity and failure of African countries to strengthen their health systems and develop a strong, well-trained public health workforce that can provide quality and equitable service. The challenge of health workforce inadequacy in sub-Saharan Africa goes beyond numbers of health workers to include other problems such as failure to utilize the existing trained personnel to the best advantage due to a number of constraints. Sovereign states or national governments are undoubtedly at the forefront of dealing with health policy in their respective countries and have the power to determine and set their priorities. Physicians, nurses, and other health workers are migrating between public and private medicine or between countries within sub-Saharan Africa and from Africa to richer countries.
