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AFRICA: Pay attention to health workers, experts say

ABIDJAN, 3 June (IRIN) - Africa needs to focus on human resources if it hopes to improve its public health sector, experts said at a three-day conference in Benin.

The conference, organised by the World Health Organization (WHO), culminated in the drafting of recommendations to strengthen the knowledge and skills of public health workers in treating patients.

The six recommendations are: encourage countries to improve workers' skills; strengthen collaboration between national and regional health training institutions; appeal for more funds and technical assistance; review training programmes; strengthen African health institutions; and ensure that training programmes are in harmony with national health policies.

The head of WHO-Africa, Ebrahim Malick Samba, told participants that his organisation stood ready to help their countries financially and technically sothat they are able to cope, WHO-Benin said in a news release.

Participants in the meeting, held on 28-30 May in Ouidah, 30 km west of Cotonou, came from Algeria, Benin, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Nigeria, Senegal and Swaziland. They included WHO country representatives, partner agencies and health specialists.

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