Harare, Zimbabwe – The Zimbabwean government has announced ambitious plans to more than double the number of nursing graduates by 2030 as the country grapples with a severe brain drain in the health sector.
This comes as thousands of health professionals, including doctors and nurses, continue to leave the country for better opportunities abroad, significantly affecting the quality of healthcare delivery.
Since 2019, over 5,000 healthcare workers have left Zimbabwe for countries such as the United Kingdom, United States, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, seeking better pay and working conditions. In Zimbabwe, health professionals earn an average of US$255 per month, while those in the UK earn approximately US$2,500, even at entry-level positions.
Efforts to retain nurses through restrictive measures, such as requiring them to pay exorbitant fees for documentation needed to work abroad, have failed to stem the exodus. Additionally, promises by Vice President Constantino Chiwenga to engage the United Nations (UN) in addressing what he termed an “unfair” recruitment practice by Western countries have yet to materialize.
During a post-cabinet media briefing this week, Information Minister Jenfan Muswere revealed that the government has approved a six-year Health Workforce Strategy, presented by Higher and Tertiary Education Minister Amon Murwira, to tackle the mass departure of health workers.
“The Health Workforce Strategy 2023-2030 aims at ensuring a sustainable and resilient health workforce capable of supporting Zimbabwe’s goal of becoming an upper-middle-income economy by 2030,” said Muswere.
The strategy focuses on five key areas aimed at encouraging health professionals to remain in the country: Education, Training and Development; Deployment, Utilization and Governance; Retention and Migration Management; Monitoring and Evaluation, ICT and Research; and Planning and Financing.
Muswere highlighted that the government intends to increase the number of nursing graduates from 3,334 in 2022 to at least 7,000 by 2030. “The Education, Training and Development pillar seeks to align all health worker training programs with the needs of the sector, to expand training output, and to professionalize and integrate community health workers into the formal workforce,” Muswere explained. He added that the government plans to refurbish and expand training school infrastructure to accommodate the increase in students.
In addressing retention and migration management, the government aims to improve remuneration within its financial constraints to reduce the attrition rate by 2030. This is seen as critical to curbing the ongoing flight of skilled health professionals to other countries.
Zimbabwe’s health sector has been severely impacted by years of economic mismanagement and underinvestment, with the World Health Organization (WHO) placing the country on its red list for having critical health service shortages. The continuous loss of health workers has further strained an already struggling healthcare system, prompting the government to prioritize workforce retention and training.
The new strategy represents the government’s latest effort to rebuild the country’s healthcare system, though it faces significant challenges as more professionals leave for greener pastures. The success of the plan will be closely watched, with the health sector’s recovery seen as essential for the country’s broader economic and social development goals.