Abstract
Background: Information on health education institutions is required for planning, implementing and monitoring human resources for health strategies. Details on the number, type and distribution of medical and health science programs offered by African higher education institutions remains scattered. Methods: We merged and updated datasets of health professional and post-graduate programs to develop a mapping of health education institutions covering the World Health Organization African Region as of 2021. Results: Nine hundred and nine (909) institutions were identified in the 47 countries. Together they offered 1,157 health professional programs (235 medicine, 718 nursing, 77 public health and 146 pharmacy) and 1,674 post-graduate programs (42 certificates, 1,152 Master’s and 480 PhDs). Regionally, East Africa had the most countries with multiple academic health science centres - institutions offering medical degrees and at least one other health professional program. Among countries, South Africa had the most institutions and post-graduate programs with 182 and 596, respectfully. A further five countries had between 53-105 institutions, 12 countries had between 10 and 37 institutions, and 28 countries had between one and eight institutions. One country had no institution. Countries with the largest populations and gross domestic products had significantly more health education institutions and produced more scientific research (ANOVA testing). Discussion: We envision an online database being made available in a visually attractive, user-friendly, open access format that nationally, registered institutions can add to and update. This would serve the needs of trainees, administrators, planners and researchers alike and support the World Health Organization’s Global strategy on human resources for health: workforce 2030.
Highlights
The shortage of health personnel in the World Health Organization African Region (WHO AFR1) is well documented1–4
On 27 Feb 2017 - https://www.worldcat.org/ - listed the book as being available at 501 libraries worldwide, only 3 (0.6%) of them were in Africa - all in South Africa
This paper presents a first joint mapping of institutions offering health education programs in WHO AFR and discusses issues concerning their distribution
Summary
The shortage of health personnel in the World Health Organization African Region (WHO AFR1) is well documented. Well documented is the relatively low research output of the African continent relative to other regions. IJsselmuiden et al. mapped advanced public health programs in Africa and Mullan et al. mapped sub-Saharan African medical programs over a decade ago. Klopper and Uys produced a book on nursing education in Africa, but it included mainly Anglophone countries and is not available widely in African libraries. Klopper and Uys produced a book on nursing education in Africa, but it included mainly Anglophone countries and is not available widely in African libraries2 These three sources took important steps towards mapping health education institutions (HEIs) but most have lagged behind advances. Ethiopia increased the number of medical schools from five to 23 between 2003 and 200910, yet the Mullan et al. mapping listed only 12
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