Human Resources for Health and Social Work in Sub-Saharan Africa - International Comparison of Demographic Aspects

Reiko Hayashi, National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, Japan

The development of workforce in the health and social sector is important not only for achieving SDGs Goal 3 (Health), but also Goal 8 (Decent Work) and Goal 5 (Gender). Based on the 19 Sub-Saharan countries census microdata, it was revealed that the proportion of labour force in health and social work sector to the total workforce was as high as 4.4% in South Africa, 2.6% in Liberia but the remaining countries are on the low level of 0.3-1.6%. Female proportion in health and social work labour force is higher than the total workforce but the difference is not as large. The workforce age structure of Ghana and Mali show peaks at young women around 25 years old but decline to the age around the 40 years old. In addition to the production (education), how to retain the workforce is an important issue to solve the deficit of the workforce.