Nigeria and 54 other countries have been added to the World Health Organization (WHO) Health Workforce Support and Safeguards List 2023, which identifies countries facing significant challenges in achieving universal health coverage.
These challenges include having a doctor, nurse, and midwife density below the global median of 49 per 10,000 population and a universal health coverage service coverage index below a certain threshold.
The WHO’s report, released on March 8, notes that the threshold for the universal health coverage service coverage index has been raised from 50 to 55 to account for disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Of the 37 countries listed under the African Region category, Nigeria is included, along with Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The report also includes countries listed in other regions such as Haiti, Afghanistan, Djibouti, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Bangladesh, Nepal, Timor-Leste, Kiribati, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Micronesia (Federated States of), Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Samoa, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
