Health profession regulators agree on education quality standards in Africa

 

Health professions regulatory bodies, education leaders and technical experts from across the African Region have reached a landmark consensus on the Africa Health Professions Education Quality Standards (AHPEQS), establishing a shared continental framework to strengthen the quality, relevance and responsiveness of health professional training.

The agreement comes at a critical time for the Region, which faces a projected shortage of 6.1 million health professionals by 2030, driven by high attrition, outmigration and persistent mismatches between training outputs and evolving population health needs. In many countries, this challenge is compounded by a structural labour market paradox, where workforce shortages coexist with unemployment, particularly affecting primary health care and specialized services, and placing additional strain on fragile and vulnerable settings. 

Adopted during a three-day meeting in Potchefstroom, South Africa, the standards mark a decisive shift from expanding training capacity alone toward ensuring consistent quality, accountability and competence across health professions education systems. While the African Region has made significant progress in increasing training output, with more than 4,000 institutions producing over 225,000 graduates annually, concerns remain about the readiness of some graduates to meet increasingly complex health system demands. 

Evidence continues to highlight gaps in competencies, including challenges in diagnostic accuracy and clinical decision-making, underscoring the need for stronger, more harmonized education and accreditation systems. Variations in education quality, regulatory capacity and institutional performance have further contributed to inconsistencies in the delivery of safe, effective and people-centred care.

The newly adopted AHPEQS respond directly to these challenges by providing a comprehensive framework structured across nine domains and 35 standards, covering regulatory systems, institutional governance, curriculum and educational processes, student selection and support, academic and support staff, infrastructure and technology, institutional quality assurance, partnerships, and health workforce competence. Together, these standards establish a common reference for countries to strengthen accreditation, improve institutional performance and ensure that health professionals are equipped with the competencies required to respond to evolving health needs.

The consensus, formalized through the Potchefstroom Consensus, reflects a growing recognition among countries and partners that improving health outcomes depends not only on increasing the number of health workers, but also on ensuring the quality and relevance of their education. It also aligns with continental priorities, including the African Union’s Agenda 2063, which promotes the development of a competent workforce and the free movement of health professionals across the continent. 

“We are collectively shaping a continental architecture for health professions education that reflects African realities, responds to African health priorities and is built on African leadership and consensus” said Dr Adelheid Onyango, Director of Health Systems Strengthening at the WHO Regional Office for Africa.

Participants also issued a strong call to action to accelerate implementation of the standards. The World Health Organization was urged to work with the African Union, Regional Economic Communities and partners to finalize technical guidance, benchmarking tools and supporting materials, and to support countries in adopting and operationalizing the standards. Member States were encouraged to integrate the standards into national regulatory, accreditation and curriculum review processes, while regulatory bodies and training institutions were called upon to advance competency-based education, strengthen collaboration and leverage innovation to improve learning outcomes. 

The AHPEQS form part of the broader Africa Health Workforce Agenda 2026–2035, which aims to educate, employ and retain an additional three million health workers across the continent. Building on the development of regional prototype competency-based curricula launched in 2025, the standards represent a critical next step in aligning education systems with health system needs and ensuring that investments in workforce development translate into improved service delivery and better health outcomes.

“These standards will support countries to strengthen accreditation systems, enhance accountability and improve comparability of qualifications, while also advancing mutual recognition and mobility of health professionals across borders” said Dr James Avoka Asamani, Health Workforce Team Lead at WHO Regional Office for Africa.

With the adoption of the AHPEQS, countries across the African Region have taken a significant step toward ensuring that health professionals are not only trained in greater numbers, but are equipped with the skills, competencies and professionalism required to deliver quality care and advance progress toward universal health coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of WHO Regional Office for Africa.