The disparity is staggering. Africa bears one-quarter of the burden of disease around the world yet has barely 3 percent of all health workers. Millions of people across the continent thus suffer needlessly because they cannot obtain medical care from trained personnel. In sub-Saharan Africa, where the crisis is most acute, fully 820,000 additional doctors, nurses, and midwives are needed to provide even the most basic health services. To meet this shortfall, most of the region’s countries would have to increase the size of their health workforce by 140 percent.

Unfortunately, the money to hire, train, and sustain new recruits on this scale isn’t available and likely won’t be in the foreseeable future. Moreover, the classical Western model of health care training, which prevails throughout much of Africa, is capital intensive and time consuming: even if the funds materialized, about 600 additional medical and nursing schools and more than two decades would be needed to close the gap. Another challenge is the relatively low appeal of health care as a career in Africa. Wages for doctors and nurses are low there, and many doctors depart for the better working conditions, job security, and pay available elsewhere. Finally, poor infrastructure and...