Training Rational

The challenges the health sector currently faces is twofold, firstly, the burden of disease (double burden, communicable and non-communicable). The Strategic Plan of MOHSS reviewed that the HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis and reproductive health has been glooming and requiring attention. The burden attributed by non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer and diabetes increased the morbidity and mortality rate in the country. Given the current scenario of more than 2,167,955 COVID-19 people infected and 146,055 death world-wide (John Hopkins University (2020), the number of health workers is also declining at a rapid pace tolling more than 453 health professionals dying of coronavirus (Medscape, April, 2020).

Secondly, the worsening Human Resource for Health (HRH) situation in Namibia, which has kept the available workforce at 50 percent of the required levels, is recognized as a key bottleneck to improving health outcomes. The populationper-physician ratio worsened regardless of its effort of foreign training programs. The practitioner-patient ratio are as follows: 1:2,952 for doctors, 1:704 for registered nurses, 1:10,039 for pharmacists, 1:13,519 for social workers, and 1:28,562 for health inspectors, among others. This imbalance affects other categories of health workers as well. The crisis is particularly acute in rural areas where close to 50% of rural health centers may have only one qualified staff and numerous facilities are without any professional staff at all. The Government’s effort in realizing the required number of qualified personal through Namibia Student Financial Assistance Fund (NASFAF), the MOHSS as well as Social Security Commission have been sponsoring Namibian students abroad in pursue of medical and allied health training programs every year. .