WHO's role in the development of nursing in the African region.

Over the past 20 years WHO has contributed tremendously to the development and progress of the nursing profession in Africa. Its biggest achievement has been in upgrading the varied and inconsistent nursing education and training programmes introduced prior to 1953 during the colonial period. Then there were no independent states. The British controlled most of eastern and southern Africa and some countries in the west, while the French ruled over most of the colonies in western Africa.