UN-ECA Urges Africa to boost health financing amid drop in assistance
The Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Claver Gatete has urged African governments to adequately finance the health sector, apanews.net reported.
Speaking at the high-level side event on Africa’s health sovereignty in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia on Sunday, Gatete said Africa has seen a sharp decline in development assistance in the health sector, down to roughly $39 billion in 2025 from about $80 billion in 2021.
Gatete said Africa spends approximately $145 billion annually on health while governments finance less than half, which “unfortunately” leaves households to bear heavy out‑of‑pocket payments.
Across many countries of the continent, he said families sell vital assets to pay medical bills which in turn resulted in not only social but also macroeconomic consequences.
“Health financing cannot be an auxiliary budget line. It must be integrated into national fiscal frameworks and financed predictably, just as nations finance infrastructure, energy and security,” Gatete said.
He said no financing solution will be sufficient so long as limited public funds are used to purchase externally produced inputs.
According to Gatete, it is unacceptable that a continent of over $1.4 billion people, carrying nearly a quarter of the global disease burden, is served by fewer than a thousand pharmaceutical manufacturers and produces only a small share of the medicines it consumes.
“Import dependence exposes our health systems to external prices, external decisions and external disruptions,” said Gatete, noting that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) would help address the problems by harmonising regional value chains.
He said the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa contributes by linking health financing to macro‑fiscal planning, domestic resource mobilisation, debt sustainability and regional integration.
Gatete pointed out that health sovereignty cannot be achieved by ministries of health alone. Finance, trade, industry and planning authorities must act together.
The executive secretary called on African governments to integrate health financing into their national development plans and medium‑term fiscal frameworks, so prevention, primary healthcare and financial protection are funded predictably.
He also underscored the need to mobilise domestic resources through more efficient, digitised tax administration, health‑promoting taxes and innovative instruments such as blended finance, diaspora bonds and debt‑for‑health swaps.
Highlighting the urgency of developing pharmaceutical and vaccine production centers through regulatory harmonisation, technology transfer and private investment, Gatete called for strengthening advanced health systems across Africa.
