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Ending disease in Africa: vision, strategies and special initiatives, 2023-2030

World Health Organisation (WHO) (2023) C_WHO

While there has been real progress in addressing the burden of disease in the WHO African region, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the link between health, economics and security, as the region saw decades of progress threatened, including positive trends in decreasing inequality. In the Africa ... more

Antibiotic Regimens in meningitis epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa

L. Cibrelus World Health Organization (2014) C_WHO

Report for the WHO Meningitis Guideline Revision (May 2014)

Intercountry high-level meeting on health systems strengthening for enhanced tuberculosis prevention and care

World Health Organization Europe (2016) C_WHO

Regional Eastern European and Central Asian project (TB-REP) Copenhagen, Denmark, 26–28 April 2016

Africa, WASH, and the Millennium Development Goals: A Local Systems Case Study of How Ethiopia Achieved MDG Target 7c

McGahey, Christopher USAID (2017) C1

Ethiopia met the MDG target for drinking water access with a unique and high degree of success. The magnitude of the country’s success in providing improved drinking water to nearly half of its population in 25 years despite its diversity, size, a ... more

Essential Health Services Package for UHC

Ministry of Health & Sanitation Sierra Leone (2022) CC

In Sierra Leone, Health care delivery is organized around a three-tier system i) primary level constituting peripheral health units (community health centers, community health posts, and maternal and child health posts secondary level constituting district hospitals tertiary level comprising ... more

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 o ... n 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

Ouagadougou Declaration on Primary Health Care and Health Systems in Africa

WHO WHO (2008) C_WHO

It focuses on nine major priority areas, namely: Leadership and Governance for Health; Health Service Delivery; Human Resources for Health; Health Financing; Health Information Systems; Health Te ... more

Refugee and Migrant Health System Review: Challenges and Opportunities for Long-term Health system Strengthening in Uganda

Government of Uganda; World Health Organization WHO (2024) C_WHO

Uganda is Africa's largest refugee-hosting country and ranks fifth globally. Over the decades, Uganda has hosted refugees from nations including South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan, Burundi, and Rwanda. As of early ... more

Taking Stock: Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Climate Commitments - an East and Southern Africa Review

UNFPA (2024) CC

Women, girls and marginalized groups who are largely dependent on natural resources for livelihoods are among the hardest hit by extreme weather patterns. These weather patterns limit their access to food, water, shelter, education and access to ess ... more

Africa, WASH, and the Millennium Development Goals: A Local Systems Case Study of How Senegal Achieved MDG Target 7c

McGahey, Christopher USAID (2017) C1

Nationally, Senegal met the MDG target for water supply access. It did this by engaging the public and private sectors to effectively invest and report on investments. It focused on larger population centers, less on remote regions of the country. I ... more

South Africa: Cold Chain and Immunisation Operations Manual

Department of Health, Republic of South Africa (2015) C2

Guidelines for Handling Temperature Sensitive Vaccines and Pharmaceuticals

The Middle East Program for Youth in Crisis at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative

Brett D. Nelson, Maya Fehling, Margaret E. Tierna, Zina Maan Jarrah Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (2015)

Examining the needs of at‐risk youth in the Middle East and North Africa: A multi‐method landscape analysis and systematic literature review

Infection prevention and control guideline for Ebola and Marburg disease, August 2023
recommended

World Health Organization WHO (2023) CC

Ebola disease and Marburg disease outbreaks continue to occur in Africa, with increased frequency. In addition to resulting in high mortality and morbidity, the outbreaks generate fear and mistrust about the response activities within the communitie ... more

Africa CDC: Event based Surveillance Framework

Africa CDC (2018) C_CDC

Event-based surveillance (EBS) is defined as the organized collection, monitoring, assessment and interpretation of mainly unstructured ad hoc information regarding health events or risks, which may represent an acute risk to health. Both indicator-based and event-based surveillance components serve ... more

Liberia Operational Plan for Acclerated Response to Re-occurence of Ebola Epidemic

GOVERNMENT OF LIBERIA MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL WELFARE (2014)

Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak Response Plan in West Africa Annex 3

Ebola: Getting to zero - for communities, for children for the future

(2015)

As slight hints of recovery begin to surface in West Africa, UNICEF is looking at the impact of Ebola on children and the response and work of the affected communities in the report, Ebola: Getting to zero – ... more

Real-Time Assessment (RTA) of UNICEF’s Ongoing Response to COVID-19 in Eastern and Southern Africa

UNICEF (2021) C_UNICEF

The RTA covered UNICEF’s response to COVID-19 from March 2020 – when WHO declared the disease a pandemic – until January 2021. Further, the RTA applied a broad and cross-cutting lens to all 21 UNICEF county offices across the region, focusing on six case study countries: Kenya, Madagascar, Nam ... more

Antimicrobial stewardship in a rural regional hospital – growing a positive culture

Juanid, E.; L. Jenkins, H. Swanepoel, et al. (2018) CC

S Afr Med J 2018;108(7):546-550. DOI:10.7196/SAMJ.2018.v108i7.13149 Antimicrobial stewardship programmes have been introduced worldwide in response to the rise in antimicrobial resistance. The World Health Organization has mandated each Member State to produce a plan to address this problem. We rep ... more

Guiding Principles for Children on the Move in the Context of Climate Change

UN Children's Fund UNICEF (2022) CC

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Georgetown University, and the United Nations University have today launched new guidelines to provide the first-ever global policy framework that will ... help protect, include, and empower children on the move in the context of climate change. The Guiding Principles for Children on the Move in the Context of Climate Change provides a set of 9 principles that address the unique and layered vulnerabilities of children on the move both internally and across borders as a result of the adverse impacts of climate change. Currently, most child-related migration policies do not consider climate and environmental factors, while most climate change policies overlook the unique needs of children. The guidelines note that climate change is intersecting with existing environmental, social, political, economic, and demographic conditions contributing to people’s decisions to move. In 2020 alone, nearly 10 million children were displaced in the aftermath of weather-related shocks. With around one billion children – nearly half of the world’s 2.2 billion children – living in 33 countries at high risk of the impacts of climate change, millions more children could be on the move in the coming years. Developed in collaboration with young climate and migration activists, academics, experts, policymakers, practitioners, and UN agencies, the guiding principles are based on the globally ratified Convention on the Rights of the Child and are further informed by existing operational guidelines and frameworks. Recommendations for safeguarding the rights and well-being of children regardless of their location or migration status. The guiding principles provide national and local governments, international organizations and civil society groups with a foundation to build policies that protect children’s rights. The organizations and institutions are calling on governments, local and regional actors, international organizations, and civil society groups to embrace the guiding principles to help protect, include, and empower children on the move in the context of climate change. more

WHO Strategic Action Plan for Ebola Outbreak Response

World Health Organization (2014)

Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak Response Plan in West Africa July to December 2014. Annex 1