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The health workforce is the cornerstone for health systems and pivotal for healthcare and population health improvement. In many countries and internationally, the health workforce continues to present a challenge and a target area for interventions aimed at strengthening health systems and improving health. Following decades of neglect and vertical interventions, a systems-thinking approach has started to inform health workforce development in many settings, with more frameworks aligned with systems thinking emerging. Sudan, for example, introduced a significant health workforce transformation initiative in 2001. Adopting a systems-thinking approach, this initiative resulted in tangible achievements in promoting its health workforce. This chapter sets out to reflect on the Sudan’s experience in approaching health workforce development through a systems-thinking approach. Capitalizing on secondary sources and reflecting on our first-hand experience of work within the country’s Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH), we describe and analyze the course of action taken among the Sudanese health workforce over the past two decades. Specifically, we employ the World Health Organization’s “working lifespan” framework to describe interventions related to health workforce development and the lessons emerging. In addition to reflecting on these achievements, we identify the remaining challenges, and present lessons learned for health workforce strengthening in Sudan and beyond. |
