Retd Cap. Erastus J. Nekuta
Board Chairman – Mordecai Investment Group
The Government of Namibia through the current leadership, has demonstrated strong commitment to addressing the country’s Human Resource for Health (HRH) crisis since 2018. This commitment is well reflected in Namibia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) – The NDP5 2018/19 (Government of Namibia, 2018), to fulfil specifically the 2006- 2010 Human Resources for Health Strategic Plan (HRHSP) (MOHSS 2000).
The HRHSP in line with public health system, Human Resource Management comes under the Directorate of Human Resources and General Services whereas Human Resource Development is in the Directorate of Policy Planning and Human Resource Development.
These organs envisage a comprehensive response to Namibia’s HRH crisis and aims to ensure an adequate and equitable distribution of an appropriately skilled and motivated health workforce through effective HRH planning, increased health workforce production, improved health workforce productivity as well as stronger HRH management and governance structures. The MOHSS has a Long-Term Human Resource (HR) strategic framework forecasted the future needs and supply of required staff in the country for a period of thirty years (1997- 2027). With this effort, Mordecai Investment Group has been in consultation with MOHSS regarding the development of Windhoek Medical University.
To this effect, a Memorandum of Understanding has been drafted and admitted by the Ministry already for the construction and development of an infrastructure campus (12,000 students and 500 patient-bed Teaching Hospital University capacity) in Namibia. The MOU includes all the specialised training programs of whose curriculums are in place via signed collaborations with Kaduna State University, American University of Moldova and Girne American University.
The Mordecai Investment Group (Pty) Ltd has realized the ultimate needs of the population for healthcare services, and its role to meet these needs through establishing a Medical University as starting phase to support public healthcare services through medical education. Unmet health needs of populations has been recognized by the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MOHSS) of Namibia in need of 7138 (MOHSS, 2020) qualified persons due to critical training gaps. Many Health facilities (public and private) in Namibia are still losing essential health staff due to cumulative and recent spikes in departures of health professionals to Europe, retirement, and leaves, and the MOHSS continues to find itself in critical needs of these specialised health professionals. This situation is yet to worsen as European counties now have lost a huge number of its health workers through COVID-19 this year. This calls for a responsible response from both public and private promoters such as Mordecai Investment Group (Pty) Ltd, and its partners for a proposal to utilize available resources to tackle the enormous health challenges in the country and SADC region through a new strategy for investing in medical education.
