Op-ed: Smart policies, not more dependence, will boost Africa’s health financing

With cuts to foreign aid destabilising Africa’s healthcare systems, access to essential medicines and treatment programmes have been disrupted across the continent. In an Op-ed for Devex, CEO of the Access to Medicine Foundation, Jayasree K. Iyer, highlights the different avenues that African governments can take to secure more sustainable financing and stablilise regional supply chains.

Jayasree writes that by establishing or raising “smart health taxes” on products such as tobacco and alcohol, governments can raise their tax revenue while countering the rising burden of noncommunicable diseases, which disproportionately affect Africa and cause millions of premature deaths.

Addressing the debt burden that many African countries face, Jayasree adds that leveraging new financing models within the healthcare sector can free up social spending, offering “smarter ways to borrow for healthcare investment.”

“Philanthropy, a critical source of capital in Africa, can play a catalytic role by seeding early-stage health care initiatives and building confidence for larger institutional investors,” Jaysree writes. “This is important when it comes to private equity, where health investment is still lagging far behind other sectors, despite a sharp rise in overall private equity activity in Africa in recent years.”

Along with these strategies, Jayasree adds that tapping into the wealth of Africa’s growing middle class and incorporating private sector healthcare elements can also improve the situation.

Jayasree also highlights the importance of investing in local manufacturing to reduce dependence on foreign aid and leveraging technology and AI to create more sustainable systems in the future.