Achieving universal health coverage will require an additional 15 million health workers, with shortages present in most countries. At the same time, the international migration of health workers is increasing, with a 60 percent rise in the number of migrant doctors and nurses working in OECD countries in the last decade. Among concerns about “brain drain,” the World Health Organization has advocated for the establishment of mutually beneficial labour migration pathways within the health care sector, especially with countries exhibiting a critical shortage of health workers like Nigeria.

This case study is one of three in a recent report by CGD and the World Bank, outlining how CGD’s Global Skill Partnership model could be applied to boost the number of skilled professionals in Nigeria and Europe. This piece focuses on the health care sector. It explores how the model could be used to foster ethical and sustainable health worker migration between Nigeria and the United Kingdom, improving training and health management infrastructure while increasing the stock of health workers in both countries.

Report by the Center for Global Development