This archive report was first published on 18 June 2020.
Published on June 18, 2020, a study by the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies warned that the Covid-19 pandemic could roll back efforts to rebuild Somalia's healthcare system.
The study, titled Somalia's Healthcare System: Baseline Study and Human Capital Development Strategy, found that the country's healthcare workforce is slowly recovering from the effects of the civil war and subsequent state collapse, but remains critically inadequate due to complex socio-economic, security, coordination, planning, and political obstacles.
According to the study, Somalia has only 9,566 healthcare professionals operating in the country, a ratio of 0.34 essential health workers per 1,000 people, which falls far short of the WHO minimum requirement of 4.5 per 10,000 people.
Dr. Ali Abdullahi Warsame, on behalf of the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies and City University of Mogadishu, stated that Somalia needs to recruit 97,700 physicians, nurses, and midwives, or 24,350 doctors and 73,350 nurses and midwives by 2030 to achieve Universal HealthCare, a key priority set out by both the WHO and the UN General Assembly.
