World Health Worker Week 2023 (April 3-7) raised awareness of the important role of health workers everywhere by promoting the theme of “Investing in the Health Work Force.” This year’s World Health Worker Week coincided with World Health Day (April 7) and the 75^th Anniversary of the World Health Organization (WHO).  

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Nigeria Health Workforce Management (HWM) Activity marked World Health Worker Week by collaborating with donors including the WHO; the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF); the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO); and the German Development Agency (GIZ) on a press briefing with Nigerian Minister of Health Osagie Ehanire. HWM used the briefing to advocate for support in addressing human resources for health (HRH) challenges, especially in primary health care.

I want to call on States to remove their embargo on the employment of health workers and to invest in hiring more health workers which is a barrier to our vision of achieving universal health coverage and improved quality of care. I call on all concerned to ensure that more frontline health workers are recruited to ensure a substantial reduction in the shortage of health workers.

Nigerian Minister of Health Osagie Ehanire

USAID Health, Population, and Nutrition Office Director Paul McDermott reiterated the agency’s longstanding commitment to improving HRH in Nigeria. He thanked Minister Ehanire for his leadership at the Community Health Worker Symposium in March 2023 in Monrovia, Liberia.