Africa’s health sector just reached a historic milestone. On 24 November 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa officially launched the first-ever Africa Prototype Competency-Based Curricula for ten key health professions. The event, held in Pretoria with satellite gatherings across multiple countries, signals a powerful shift toward the future of medical education on the continent.
For the first time, Africa has a unified framework that moves beyond theory-heavy, outdated training models and embraces competency-based education the kind that ensures every graduate is actually ready for real-world practice from day one.
A New Standard for Health Training in Africa
These prototype curricula were developed through a massive regional collaboration. More than 300 experts, from universities and professional councils to ministries of health, students, and development partners, contributed to the process. The work is grounded in the Global Competency and Outcomes Framework for Universal Health Coverage (2022) and guided by Africa’s leading education and practice experts.
The result?
A continental benchmark that gives African countries a strong, evidence-based foundation to upgrade national training programs for nurses, midwives, pharmacists, dentists, laboratory scientists, and other essential health professionals.
Why This Launch Matters Now
Africa’s health workforce has grown significantly from 1.6 million in 2013 to over 5 million in 2022. Yet despite this progress, the continent is staring at a projected shortage of 6.1 million health workers by 2030.
Even more worrying is the disconnect between training and employment: around 27% of trained health workers remain unemployed because their skills don’t match the evolving needs of the health labour market.
Dr. Adelheid Onyango, WHO Africa’s Director of Health Systems and Services, captured the issue perfectly:
“For too long we have trained for qualifications, not for competence. But competence is what saves lives.”
These new curricula were designed to change exactly that.
What the New Curricula Aim to Deliver
The competency-based model strengthens what truly matters in healthcare:
- Practical skills and clinical readiness
- Strong ethical and professional judgment
- Emergency care and primary health competencies
- Digital health and AI adaptability
- Confidence to deliver safe, people-centered care in any setting
A central ambition is comparability: a nurse trained in Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, or any other African country should graduate with similar competencies. This could ease cross-border mobility, reduce re-examination requirements, and help build a more integrated African health labour market.
Part of a Bigger Transformation Agenda
The launch aligns with the Africa Health Workforce Agenda 2026–2035: Plan, Train, and Retain, where government officials and experts are discussing strategies to create more jobs, improve retention, and modernize health education.
The new prototype curricula are expected to become a core tool in driving these reforms across the continent.
What Happens Next
WHO is encouraging governments, universities, regulators, and professional bodies to adapt the prototype curricula to their national needs. Key next steps include:
- Supporting countries with rollout and implementation
- Creating continental accreditation standards
- Strengthening regulation to ensure training quality
- Promoting mutual recognition of qualifications
- Working toward a unified African health labour market
As Dr. Onyango emphasized, this is just the beginning:
“We want this to become a continental movement. These curricula are only the beginning. They will anchor a new era of quality, trust, and excellence in Africa’s health workforce.”
Africa’s future health workforce is taking shape—and it’s more competent, more confident, and more prepared than ever.