The initiative marks the culmination of an intensive, multi-year effort to reshape how Africa trains, assesses and supports its health workers. Speaking shortly after the launch, Dr Champion Nyoni, Technical Officer for Health Workforce Education and Training at WHO AFRO, unpacked the journey that brought the project from concept to reality.

A response to fragmentation and misalignment

Dr Nyoni says the drive to create a regional competency based model began with a simple but urgent question: Are we training health professionals who can truly meet the needs of African communities?

For years, education systems across the continent have faced fragmentation, outdated curricula and a disconnect between what students learn in classrooms and what frontline practice demands.

“We were worried about the fragmentation of education, the disconnect between what students are taught and what they get to do in practice,” Dr Nyoni explained. The solution was to rethink and modernise the entire training pipeline.

Anchored in global standards, adapted for Africa

To guide the transformation, WHO drew from its global frameworks, including the Global Competency and Outcomes Framework for Universal Health Coverage.

At regional level, this framework was “operationalised” to ensure the outcomes reflect Africa’s realities, disease burdens, available resources and local health systems.

Over one and a half years, WHO AFRO mapped priority outcomes for each profession, asking what graduates must be able to do on the day they enter the workforce. This guided the structure and direction of the new curricula.

A continent-wide collaborative process

A key turning point was the establishment of the Curriculum Development Advisory Group—a panel of 16 senior experts drawn from across Africa, representing over 300 cumulative years of experience in health education, regulation and professional practice.

Their role was to provide strategic oversight and ensure the curricula reflected both scientific rigour and lived realities of African health systems.

Drafts were circulated widely: technical units within WHO, more than 300 stakeholders, member states, academic institutions and even students contributed to refining the framework. Each round of feedback strengthened the final product.

Shifting from exams to real-world competence

One of the most significant transformations in the new model is how competence is assessed.

“Previously competence meant writing an exam and passing a three-hour paper,” Dr Nyoni said. “Now the focus shifts to what you are actually able to do.”

Instead of theoretical recall, students will be evaluated on supervised clinical tasks, practical performance and ongoing feedback. Competence becomes a lived, demonstrated ability—not a test score.

Supporting countries to adopt and adapt

With the regional launch complete, WHO AFRO now turns to the next phase: helping countries turn the prototype curricula into national programmes.

“We need to cascade these documents from being regional documents to country-level documents,” Dr Nyoni noted. WHO will work closely with regulatory bodies and higher education institutions to adapt the model to each country’s context.

Parallel to this, WHO is developing African Health Professions Education Quality Standards, which will allow institutions to benchmark performance, harmonise training, and enable smoother movement of health workers across borders.

Towards a harmonised African health workforce

The long-term vision is clear: an Africa where countries share aligned training standards, where qualifications are mutually recognised, and where health workers can practise across borders without repetitive exams or re-training.

“Malaria in Congo and malaria in South Africa is still malaria,” Dr Nyoni said. “But countries need space to adapt the curricula to their treatment guidelines and realities.”

The prototype curricula provide a shared foundation, while giving countries the freedom to tailor training to national needs.

A historic turning point

The launch of Africa’s first regionally designed competency based health curricula represents one of the most ambitious education reforms in decades. It signals a shift towards modern, skills-based, people-centred training—one that aligns with Universal Health Coverage goals and strengthens Africa’s health workforce for generations to come.

As countries prepare to adopt and implement the new model, WHO AFRO will continue providing support, oversight and technical guidance to ensure that the continent’s next generation of health professionals is better equipped than ever before.

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Speaking at the event, Ms Shenaaz El-Halabi, WHO South Africa Country Representative, said the new curricula represent a major step forward in strengthening the quality, competence and public trust in Africa’s health workforce.

“I am extremely excited to be part of this groundbreaking moment,” she said. “These ten competency based curricula focus on the areas most needed and reflect extensive consultation on the priorities of our member states.”

A new era of trust and competence

El-Halabi emphasised that public trust in health workers is a foundational element of health systems and that the new models aim to ensure health workers are not only well trained but fully competent to deliver quality care.

“The public has placed trust in the health workforce. How do we make sure our health workforce is competent to deliver? These documents were developed through consultation to reflect what is needed in member states,” she said.

Turning guidance into real world action

As the WHO Country Office, El-Halabi explained that their role involves translating global and regional guidance into actionable national plans.

“We engage with member states in providing normative guidance and translating documents into action,” she said. “As WHO, we are here to support member states in implementing these high priority documents.”

She noted that the curricula respond to some of the most pressing concerns on the continent, including stagnating maternal and infant mortality rates, gaps in community health worker support and uneven training standards.

Cross sector collaboration is essential

El-Halabi stressed that the work ahead extends beyond the health sector.

“I look forward to working with the National Department of Health but also the education sector, because it goes beyond health,” she said.

Training institutions and WHO collaborating centres will also play a pivotal role in implementation, adaptation and scale up.

Institutionalisation and sustainability

While the launch marks a historic milestone, El-Halabi said a key priority now is ensuring the curricula become institutionalised within national systems.

“These documents are transformative, but how do we institutionalise them?” she asked. “We hope there will be further consultation within member states and engagement with all key partners to ensure these very important documents are used and sustained.”

She concluded by reaffirming WHO’s commitment to helping countries adopt, integrate and operationalise the new approach.

“I thank you,” she said. “And I look forward to continued collaboration to improve health outcomes in the country, in the continent and globally.”

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