African Union (AU) Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development, Amb. Amma A. Twum-Amoah, has called on African governments to improve the remuneration and working conditions of health professionals to curb the growing migration of skilled workers from the continent.

Speaking at the ongoing AU Extraordinary Health Summit in Accra on Tuesday, July 21, she said Africa could not achieve self-reliance in healthcare if it continued to lose its trained workforce to other parts of the world.

Amb. Twum-Amoah noted that investing public resources in training doctors, nurses and other health professionals, only for them to seek employment abroad, amounted to a loss of both public investment and valuable human capital.

She urged African governments to prioritise the retention of health workers by creating attractive employment opportunities and ensuring they receive competitive remuneration and improved working conditions.

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"Severe shortages of health personnel coexist with unemployment among trained professionals. We must recruit, train, fairly remunerate, protect and retain our doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, laboratory personnel, epidemiologists, and community health workers," she said.

"We must also address poor working conditions, limited career opportunities and other factors driving health worker migration. Training health workers without creating pathways to employ and retain them is a loss of public investment and human potential," she added.

According to the AU Commissioner, training and retaining skilled health professionals within Africa is critical to strengthening national health systems, improving healthcare delivery and advancing the continent's long-term development goals.