Public health, human resources and social change: the development of the health workforce during the late Portuguese colonial period (1945-1975)

Post-1945 the health reforms introduced in Portugal's African colonies intended to extend the benefits of social and preventive medicine to African populations, whilst reducing the high incidence and mortality levels due to preventable endemic diseases. Forming part of welfarist development strategies, these measures implied a significant increase in investment in infrastructures and human resources to overcome the deficient access, coverage and outcomes of health care for these populations. The vocational schools for training health professionals (ETS), which emerged in Angola and Mozambique during the 1940s, were meant to create a local training capacity and improve services' quality and efficiency. However, enrolment and recruitment drives stumbled upon bio-social politics which had erected racial barriers to upward social mobility for most Africans, thereby limiting their impact. This article relates reformist strategies regarding the health workforce to developmental policies, social change and African agency in late colonial Angola and Mozambique.