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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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Guatemala's Health Emergency Appeal 2023

World Health Organisation (WHO) (2023) C_WHO

Recovery from COVID-19 has been challenging in Guatemala. As a result of the prolonged socio-economic impact of the pandemic, the average poverty rate nationwide has increased by almost 5%. This rise in the poverty level further exacerbates preexisting vulnerabilities and erodes the limited safety n... more

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Using Theory of Change in the development, implementation and evaluation of complex health interventions. A practical guide

Mary De Silva, Lucy Lee& Grace Ryan The Centre for Global Mental Health &the Mental Health Innovation Network (2015) C1

This guide provides a practical overview of the process of developing a Theory of Change, focusing on using a stakeholder-driven, workshop approach to achieve this.

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2017 Guidelines for Arterial Hypertension Management in Primary Health Care in Portuguese Language Countries

Moraes de Oliveira, G et al (2017) CC

This article unites the latest guidelines on the management of arterial hypertension in primary health care in Portuguese speaking countries including Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, São Tomé e Príncipe, Cape Verde, among others.

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Trauma and PTSD in the WHO World Mental Health Surveys

Kessler, R.C., Aguilar-Gaxiola, S., Alonso, J., et al. European of Psychotraumatology (2017) CC

Objective: To review research on associations of trauma type with PTSD in the WHO World Mental Health (WMH) surveys, a series of epidemiological surveys that obtained representative data on trauma-specific PTSD.

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A systematic review of online interventions for mental health in low and middle income countries: A neglected field

Arjadi , R.; Nauta, M. H.; Chowdhary, N.; et al. Global Mental Health (2015) C1

Glob Ment Health (Camb). 2015; 2: e12. Published online 2015 Jul 14. doi: 10.1017/gmh.2015.10 Low and middle income countries (LMICs) are facing an increase of the impact of mental health problems while confronted with limited resources and limited access to mental health care, known as the ‘me... more

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Young doctors’ perspectives on antibiotic use and resistance: a multinational and inter-specialty cross-sectional European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) survey

Beovic B., M. Dousak, C. Pulcini et al. Oxford University Press (2019) C2

Antibiotic resistance has been recognized as a major global health threat and optimizing prescribing is one of the most effective measures to preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics. The quality of prescribing depends mostly on those prescribers belonging to clinical medical specialties... more

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Participatory Monitoring & Evaluation in Tanzania’s Health and Social Service Programmes: Field Manual

MEASURE Evaluation Tanzania (2017) CC

This manual serves as a toolkit of useful PM&E techniques for improving the performance and impact of community-based interventions, such as those involving the most vulnerable children, home-based care and gender-based violence. The manual includes a five-step PM&E programme path and six community ... more

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COVID-19: Health Emergency Preparedness Table-Top Exercise (TTX) - Facilitators's Guide

World Health Organisation (WHO) Health Emergencies Programme (2020) C_WHO

The COVID-19 Table-Top Exercise (TTX) is a simulation package which uses a progressive scenario together with series of scripted specific injects to enable participants to consider the potential impact of an outbreak in terms of existing plans, procedures and capacities. The aim of the TTX is to st... more

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National Guidelines for Health Care Waste Management in Ghana

Ministry of Health and Ministry of Environment Ghana (2019) CC

Ghana's attempt to regulate health care waste management started in 2002 with the development of guidelines on health care waste manage-ment by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In 2006, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) also developed the Health Care Waste Management Policy and Guidelines as ... more

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Urban Health Initiative a model process for catalysing change - Making health a priority in the design of air pollution-free cities

World Health Organization WHO (2021) C_WHO

The Urban Health Initiative (UHI) goes beyond improving access to health care and promoting healthy behaviours, and focuses on how to build cities that enable and encourage good health.

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Climate Change for Health Professionals: A Pocket Book
recommended

Pan American Health Organisation PAHO (2020) C_WHO

With this quick reference guide, providers can easily recognize diseases and side effects related to climate change, implement appropriate management and provide guidance to exposed populations, provide up-to-date information on the relationship between the adverse effects of certain drugs and the w... more

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The Missing Billion. Access to Health Services for 1 Billion People with Disabilities

Kuper, H.; and P. Heydt (2019) CC

One billion people around the world live with disabilities. This report makes the case that they are being “left behind” in the global community’s work on health. This lack of access not only violates the rights of people with disabilities under international law, but UHC and SDG 3 cannot be a... more

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Health Care Waste Management Policy for Ghana

Ministry of Health Ghana (2020) CC

Ghana's attempt to regulate health care waste management started in 2002 with the development of guidelines on health care waste manage-ment by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In 2006, the Ministry of Health developed the health care waste policy and guidelines. This guidance document im... more

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National Health in All Policies Strategic Framework 2017-2021

Ministry of Health, Zambia (2018) CC

The attainment of Zambia’s goal of being a prosperous and middle-income country by 2030 as stipulated in its Vision 2030 is dependent on among others, a healthy and productive population. Therefore, the Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) has prioritized health as a key socio-economic inves... more

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The Planetary Health Education Framework

Guzman C., Potter T. (2020) CC

The Planetary Health Education Framework is a project of the Planetary Health Alliance (planetaryhealthalliance.org). The Planetary Health Alliance is a consortium of over 250 partners from around the world committed to understanding and addressing the human health impacts of global environmental ch... more

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A guide to tailoring health programmes: Using behavioural and cultural insights to tailor health policies, services and communications to the needs and circumstances of people and communities

World Health Organization WHO (2023) CC

WHO/Europe has launched a new guide, providing support to countries on how to apply behavioural and cultural insights (BCI) for health. It presents a simple step-wise approach, complemented by a rich collection of detailed considerations, tools and exercises. The guide is the first of its kind, spec... more

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The role of community health workers in COVID-19 vaccination: Implementation support guide

World Health Organization WHO (2021) C_WHO

This guide is intended to support national governments developing their national deployment and vaccination plans (NDVPs) for COVID-19 vaccines by outlining the roles, needs and opportunities for community health workers (CHWs) to contribute. This note builds on and is structured to align with the G... more

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Who wants to work in a rural health post? The role of intrinsic motivation, rural background and faith-based institutions in Ethiopia and Rwanda

Serneels, P., Montalvo, J.G., Pettersson, G., et al. Bulletin of the World Health Organization (2010) C_WHO

This paper examines the extent to which health workers differ in their willingness to work in rural areas and the reasons for these differences, based on the data collected in Rwanda analysed individually and in combination with data from Ethiopia.

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Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health

Robert E. Black, Ramanan Laxminarayan, Marleen Temmerman; et al. International Bank for Reconstruction and Development The World Bank (2016) CC

Disease Control Priorities –3rdEdition, Volume 2. This book focuses on maternal conditions, childhood illness, and malnutrition. Specifically, the chapters address acute illness and undernutrition in children, principally under age 5. It also covers maternal mortality, morbidity, stillbirth, and ... more

Climate Change for Health Professionals: A Pocket Book recommended

Climate Change for Health Professionals: A Pocket Book
recommended