Medical mambo

Côte d’Ivoire: How one country is making strides to prevent medical brain drain

in depth

This article is part of the dossier:

Africa’s Medical Brain Drain

By Mariette Houessionon

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Posted on May 6, 2023 08:30

© A proposed view of the entrance to the University of Bondoukou, Côte d’Ivoire.
A proposed view of the entrance to the University of Bondoukou, Côte d’Ivoire.

If there is one area in which African states still have a lot of work to do after 60 years of independence, it is health care, where they lag far behind the rest of the world. For example, a country like Senegal has only 0.88 doctors per 10,000 inhabitants, whereas the global average is 1.5 doctors for a population one-tenth the size.

This is part 6 of a 6-part series

Factor in medical deserts, which aren’t too surprising, considering African practitioners are more concentrated in the capitals and large cities than in rural areas, where most of the continent’s population lives.

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