In sub-Saharan Africa, 3% of the world’s health workforce cares for 10% of the world’s population bearing 24% of the global disease burden.1 Developing countries need an extra 4.3 million health workers, and urgent action is required to scale up education and training.1 Last month the World Health Organization’s Commission on Social Determinants of Health emphasised the importance of building and strengthening the health workforce if the goal of achieving health equity within a generation is to be realised.2 International cooperation will be essential to strengthen health systems and to manage the migration of health workers from developing to developed countries.

But these measures will take time. What can African and Asian health systems do to recruit and retain health workers now? How can health workers be persuaded to practise in rural areas? Recent guidelines, commissioned by the Global Health Workforce Alliance, aim to help countries make the best use of incentives to attract and retain health professionals.3