Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR) Vol-2, Issue-3 , 2016 ISSN : 2454-1362 , http://www.onlinejournal.in Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR) Page 371 Active Participation of Health Professional in Politics and Policy Making: A Veritable Tool in Effective Healthcare Delivery in Africa – A Review Okafor Sunday N. 1 & Odenigbo Augustine O. 2 1 Department of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry, University of Nigeria, Nsukka Enugu State Nigeria. 2 University of Nigeria, Nsukka Enugu State, Nigeria. Abstract Health Professionals in Africa in an attempt to improve healthcare delivery have brought up well thought out ways to offer better health care service, but for their lack of involvement in politics and legislation in their countries, efforts to implement their proposals have been met with brick walls. How much healthcare a people get is largely dependent on the health policies at work, and the quality of these policies are dependent on the policy markers The aim of this paper is to emphasize the need for Healthcare professionals to be involved in politics and policy making in their countries in order to champion health care policies that will improve health care delivery. Key words: Health professionals, healthcare delivery, politics, policies, policy makers 1. INTRODUCTION Policy is seen as ‘the continuing work done by groups of policy actors who use available public institutions to articulate and express the things they value.’ (M. Considine 1994). Health policy is a set course of action (or inaction) undertaken by governments or health care organizations to obtain a desired health outcome (Cherry & Trotter Betts, 2005). The overall health care system, including the public and private sectors, and the political forces that affect that system are shaped by the health care, policy-making process. Healthcare is not just the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in human beings, it also refers to the work done in providing primary care, secondary care, and tertiary care, as well as in public health. Health system in Africa has met a lot of challenges over the years. There are serious leadership and governance challenges that include weak public health leadership and management and inadequate health-related legislations and their enforcement. The Ouagadougou Declaration on Primary Health Care and Health Systems in Africa on Achieving Better Health for Africa in the New Millennium focused discussion on nine major priority areas, including leadership and governance for health. Though there is a growing realization that health is an integral part of sustainable development efforts worldwide, and in Sub-sahara Africa, the role of health in development has rapidly grown but in the same region, the "bottom billion" living in 58 countries continues to be "trapped" in poverty, conflict, poor governance and poorly performing health systems (Oluwole, 2008). 2. NEED FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONALS IN THE LEGISLATIVE ARENA 2.1 Brain Drain Most of the health policies made in the African Region have been very unfavourable to Pharmacists, and indeed, other health professionals. This has led to mass exodus of these professional from their home country in search of a “greener pasture”, resulting in brain drain. It is estimated that since 1990 at least 20,000 people leave the continent annually and over 300,000 professionals reside outside Africa (Gumisai 2003 & Ainalem 2006). According to Dr. Ihechukwu Madubuike, a one time health minister in Nigeria, 21,000 Nigerian doctors were practising in the United States of America in 1995 (Augustine 2006 & Mike 2006). Pharmacists are not left out in this