Global Health Otherwise shared on LinkedIn:
“Guinea has spent two decades training more nurses, midwives, and doctors, yet many of these graduates still cannot find work in the health system.
Kolié and colleagues (2026) examine this puzzle in Guinea’s Kindia and N’zérékoré regions, challenging the long-standing narrative that West Africa simply lacks health workers. Earlier studies blamed weak training capacity for the region’s shortages, but the authors show that production has grown steadily since the post-Ebola reforms began in 2016. The real problem, however, lies elsewhere.
Surveying 9,545 health workers in 2024, the researchers find that nearly three quarters remain unsalaried, and unemployment reaches almost 75 percent among trained staff.
Urban areas absorb most workers while rural districts go understaffed, and men still dominate senior and specialist roles even though women make up most of the workforce.
The government simply cannot afford to hire everyone it trains. The authors recommend that Guinea shift its focus from producing more health workers toward creating jobs for those already trained, raising pay, and closing persistent gender gaps in leadership.
Guinea trains thousands of health workers yearly, but most remain jobless. High unemployment, urban concentration, and gender inequality still threaten the sustainability of Guinea’s growing health workforce and equity goals.”
Title: Critical unemployment or shortage of the health workforce in West Africa? Unravelling the health labour market puzzle in Guinea, 2024
Authors: Delphin Kolié, Remco Van De Pas, Josefien Van Olmen, Alexandre Delamou, Karina Kielmann, Wim Van Damme
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