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An initiative aimed at strengthening the country’s human resources for health has been launched.

The project made possible by $200,000 from the I-O-M Development Fund, seeks to identify South Sudanese health professionals in the diaspora to explore ways of involving them.

The Information and Reporting officer for South Sudan, Matthew Graydon, told Eye Radio that the project has started.

“This is the first step in what could potentially be the future project to bring the knowledge and skills of South Sudanese individuals in the diaspora, beginning from doctors to pharmacists, and many different fields and try to use their skills to improve South Sudan healthcare system, which unfortunately is ranked quite well in the global health indicators particularly in terms of the number of healthcare professionals working in the country.”

South Sudan has some of the lowest global health indicators.

According to the National Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization, less than 20% of the population of South Sudan has access to health care, and the country has only 1.5 medical doctors and 2 nurses for every 100,000 people.

This is far below the W-H-O’s-recommended standard of 250 health workers per 100,000 people.

As a first step of the project, an online survey has been launched in the three pilot countries of – Kenya, Uganda and Canada – to identify members of the South Sudanese diaspora with health skills and competencies.