The spread of the coronavirus in Africa has exposed the precarious nature of many of its healthcare systems. I am writing this at a fraught time in the history of public healthcare on the continent.
A pre-COVID-19 survey by Afrobarometer, an online data analysis tool, found that one in five Africans faced a frequent lack of much-needed healthcare services.
Rwanda, for instance, announced an immediate lockdown, and has been supplying water and food to its vulnerable populations; South Africa announced a national lockdown and set in motion dozens of mobile testing units, with a combined daily testing capacity of 30,000. Nigeria has extended its lockdown in Lagos and Abuja.
This implies the tenacity and the flexibility to battle yet another addition to the family of communicable diseases within its existing infrastructure. The question to ask now is, would implementing Universal Health Care have saved the continent from the troubles it is undergoing right now? According to Amref Health Africa CEO Dr Githinji Gitahi, ‘’Many countries have adopted the political declaration that was done at the UN general assembly in September and agreed and signed to it. The talk has happened but the walk has not happened.’’
Moreover, some of the continent’s healthcare systems have been propped up by donor funding. With the economic recession and contraction unfurling in Western Europe and North America, Africa will have to rely largely on its own resources in the future. In some 41 countries, there are less than 2,000 ventilators available in public health facilities according to WHO data. These numbers are going to change dramatically once the efforts by different countries to increase capacity are completed. There is also the donation made by the Chinese billionaire Jack Ma that has not been factored.Generally, financing healthcare in Africa has been the proverbial elephant in the room.
Nigeria, Africa’s economic giant which is also home to the continents largest population, is still struggling to shift the commitment from political talk to action. The other country that has been lauded for its progress in investing in UHC is Ghana. So much so that its health care system has been described as one of the most successful on the African continent. However, it is still struggling to find a sweet spot where financing healthcare is guaranteed.
In Senegal, the budget allocation to health is at 8% which is still below the commitments of the Abuja declaration. Besides that, Senegal has a fairly strong healthcare infrastructure. In the UHC progress report of 2019, it was lauded for its ‘solid base in preventing, detecting and responding to public health threats’.
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