BLANTYRE, Dec 10, 2008 (AFP) - Malawi, with only 7,000 health workers for a population of 13 million, opened a meeting Wednesday to find ways to stop health workers leaving the country.
A 763-million-dollar programme, partly funded by Britian and Norway and launched four years ago, is designed to reverse the brain-drain in one of Africa's poorest countries.
The scheme doubled salaries for health workers, trained new staff, and offered incentives to dissuade them from seeking higher wages overseas.
Patrick Zimpita, a senior health ministry official, said the scheme had failed to improve health care however. "Health indicators do not match the amount of money invested in this initiative. Why is this happening?" Zimpita said.
Malawi would "love to see the impact of the programme as up to 802 Malawian mothers out of every 100,000 still die while giving birth."
Malawi, where half of the population live on less than a dollar a day, is dogged by poor health facilities and has a ratio of one doctor to 64,000 people.
The country has been badly hit by the HIV-AIDS pandemic which has cut life expectancy to 36. Around 14 percent of the population are affected by the virus.
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