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Africa’s Health Financing in a New Era

Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) (2025) CC

Africa’s health sector is facing an unprecedented financing crisis, driven by a sharp decline of 70% in Official Development Assistance (ODA) from 2021 to 2025 and deep-rooted structural vulnerabilities. This collapse is placing immense pressure on Africa’s already fragile health systems as ODA ...is seen as the backbone of critical health programs: pandemic preparedness, maternal and child health services, disease control programs are all at risk, threatening Sustainable Development Goal 3 and Universal Health Coverage. Compounding this is Africa’s spiraling debt, with countries expected to service USD 81 billion by 2025—surpassing anticipated external financing inflows—further eroding fiscal space for health investments. Level of domestic resources is low. TThe Abuja Declaration of 2001, a pivotal commitment made by African Union (AU) member states, aimed to reverse this trend by pledging to allocate at least 15% of national budgets to the health sector. However, more than two decades later, only three countries—Rwanda, Botswana, and Cabo Verde—have consistently met or exceeded this target (WHO, 2023). In contrast, over 30 AU member states remain well below the 10% benchmark, with some allocating as little as 5–7% of their national budgets to health. In addition, only 16 (29%) of African countries currently have updated versions of National Health Development Plan (NHDP) supported by a National Health Financing Plan (NHFP). These two documents play a critical role in driving internal resource mobilisation. At the same time, public health emergencies are surging, rising 41%—from 152 in 2022 to 213 in 2024—exposing severe under-resourcing of health infrastructure and workforce. Recurring outbreaks (Mpox, Ebola, cholera, measles, Marburg…) alongside effects of climate change and humanitarian crises in Eastern DRC, the Sahel, and Sudan, are overwhelming systems stretched by chronic underfunding. The situation is worsened by Africa’s heavy dependency with over 90% of vaccines, medicines, and diagnostics being externally sourced—leaving countries vulnerable to global supply chain shocks. Health worker shortages persist, with only 2.3 professionals per 1,000 people (below the WHO’s recommended 4.45), and fewer than 30% of systems are digitized, undermining disease surveillance and early warning. Without decisive action, Africa CDC projects the continent could reverse two decades of health progress, face 2 to 4 million additional preventable deaths annually, and a heightened risk of a pandemic emerging from within. Furthermore, 39 million more Africans could be pushed into poverty by 2030 due to intertwined health and economic shocks. This is not just a sectoral crisis—it is an existential threat to Africa’s political, social, and economic resilience, and global stability. In response, African leaders, under Africa CDC’s stewardship, are advancing a comprehensive three-pillar strategy centered on domestic resource mobilization, innovative financing, and blended finance. more

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Sexually Transmitted Infections - Management Guidelines 2018

National Department of Health (NDOH), South Africa (2018) CC2

Adapted from: Standard Treatment Guidelines and Essential Medicine List PHC. The syndromic approach to Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) diagnosis and management is to treat the signs or symptoms (syndrome) of a group of diseases rather than treating a specific disease. This allows for the tr... more

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TB policies in Namibia

Médecines sans Frontièrs MSF; Stop TB Partnership (2020) CC2

Step Up for TB 2020 Tuberculosis Policies in 37 Countries A survey of prevention, testing, and treatment policies and practices. The country scorecard reflects how many of 14 internationally recommended key policies are in place at the national level, based on the Step Up for TB 2020 report survey... more

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Malaria vaccines: the 60‑year journey of hope and final success—lessons learned and future prospects

El‑Moamly, A.A.; and M. A. El‑Sweify (2023) CC

Tropical Medicine and Health (2023) 51:29

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Nigeria: National Guidelines for Paediatric HIV and AIDS Treatment and Care

Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria (2010) C1

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Budget Advocacy - A Guide for community activists

ehra (eurasian harm reduction association) (2018) C2

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Step-by-Step Approach for Development and Implementation of Hospital Antibiotic Policy and Standard Treatment Guidelines
recommended

World Health Organization (2011) C_WHO

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has emerged as a major public health problem all over the world. Infections caused by resistant microbes fail to respond to treatment, resulting in prolonged illness and greater risk of death. This document focuses on the mechanism to develop a practically applicable h... more

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Implementation of Option B+ for prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission of HIV: The Malawi Experience

World Health Organization; Regional Office for Africa (2014) C_WHO

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The Sphere Handbook. Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response. New Edition
recommended

Sphere (2018) C1

Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response. The 2018 Sphere Handbook builds on the latest developments and learning in the humanitarian sector. Among the improvements of the new edition, readers will find a stronger focus on the role of local authorities and communities as ... more

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Burden of disease attributable to unsafe drinking-water, sanitation and hygiene: 2019 update

World Health Organisation (WHO) (2023) C_WHO

The report summarizes the estimates of the burden of disease attributable to unsafe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene for the year 2019 for four health outcomes - diarrhoea, acute respiratory infections, soil-transmitted helminthiases, and undernutrition - which are included in the reporting o... more

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Human Factors. Technical Series on Safer Primary Care

World Health Organization WHO (2016) C_WHO

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Rabies vaccines: WHO position paper – April 2018

World Health Organization (WHO) (2018) C_WHO

Vaccins antirabiques: Note de synthèse de l’OMS – avril 2018
Weekly epidemiological record / Relevé épidémiologique hebdomadaire
20 APRIL 2018, 93th YEAR / 20 AVRIL 2018, 93e ANNÉE

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Global spending on health: rising to the pandemic’s challenges

World Health Organization WHO (2022) C_WHO

The results of the report clearly show that in 2020, a year dominated by the emergence of COVID-19 and its associated health and economic crises, governments around the world rose to the challenge. Sharp increases in government spending on health at all country income levels underpinned the rise in ... more

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Oral candidosis: an update on diagnosis, aetiopathogenesis and management

J. Fourie; RAG. Khammissa, R. Ballyram, et al. SADJ (2016) C2

SADJ August 2016, Vol 71 no 7 p314 - p318 Clinical Review

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Nature, biodiversity and health: an overview of interconnections

World Health Organization. Regional Office for Europe (2021) C_WHO

Urbanization, land use, global trade and industrialization have led to profound and negative impacts on nature, biodiversity and ecosystems across the world. The ongoing depletion of natural resources not only afects environmental conditions but also has an enormous impact on the well-being and secu... more

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Global report on neglected tropical diseases 2023

World Health Organisation (WHO) (2023) C_WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the global community of countries, partners, donors, technical experts, scientists and field implementation teams continue to work towards the ultimate goal of a world free of the burden of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).

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High-Performance Health Financing for Universal Health Coverage

The World Bank The World Bank (2019) CC

The majority of developing countries will fail to achieve their targets for Universal Health Coverage (UHC)1 and the health- and poverty-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) unless they take urgent steps to strengthen their health financing. Just over a decade out from the SDG deadline of 20... more

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A cross-country qualitative analysis of teachers’ perceptions of asthma care in sub-Saharan Africa

Naidoo, K.L.; Dladla, S.; Mphahlele, R.E. et al. npj Primary Care Respiratory Medicine (2023) CC2

Asthma is the most common chronic respiratory disease among school-going adolescents worldwide. However, the burden of severe asthma is highest in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study aimed to explore teachers’ perceptions of asthma care across six African countries. We conducted focus group discussions... more

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Integrating Clinical Research into Epidemic Response: The Ebola Experience

Gerald Keusch, Keith McAdam, Patricia Cuff, Michelle Mancher, and Emily R. Busta National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2017) C1

The 2014–2015 Ebola epidemic in western Africa was the longest and most deadly Ebola epidemic in history, resulting in 28,616 cases and 11,310 deaths in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. The Ebola virus has been known since 1976, when two separate outbreaks were identified in the Democratic Repub... more

Step-by-Step Approach for Development and Implementation of Hospital Antibiotic Policy and Standard Treatment Guidelines recommended

The Sphere Handbook. Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response. New Edition recommended

Step-by-Step Approach for Development and Implementation of Hospital Antibiotic Policy and Standard Treatment Guidelines
recommended

The Sphere Handbook. Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response. New Edition
recommended