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CCountries such as the United States and the United Kingdom have slashed global aid The head of the continent’s main health agency said it was “painful” for Africa but it also presented an “opportunity” for governments to crack down on corruption and raise taxes to fund their own health systems.
talking independentJean Kaseya, director-general of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which works in 55 countries, said aid cuts “have not been a blessing for us, but today it becomes an opportunity to see how we can build a African Sovereign Health Systems“.
This year, some countries have announced deep cuts in overseas aid spending, often to redirect funds toward defense. While no country has made as deep a cut as the United States, the British government is nearly at the top, planning 40% cuts over the next three years.
“It’s a painful experience to see this and we have the choice to sit down and cry or wake up and take action, and I think the action that African countries are taking now is to wake up and move on,” Dr Kasea said. sudden cutsincluding cause serious damage.
The head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there are untapped ways African governments can raise more money that don’t require overseas aid, such as addressing “corruption” in the way medicines and equipment are purchased, as well as the problem of “ghost workers.” This is a common payroll scam in which wages are paid to non-existent, dead, or duplicate workers. This money often ends up in the pockets of a handful of government workers.
“In some countries, this may be [up to] 40% of civil servants are ghost workers,” said Dr Kasea, costing his home country the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) $800 a year.
The head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recalls a conversation with a head of state who fell into despair after spending cuts. Global Vaccine Alliance Gavi in his country. “His first reaction was, we are going to die here,” he said, but then Dr. Kasea asked him, “How can we survive?” The country has since introduced a new tax system to fund the health sector.
But Dr Kasea acknowledged that assistance is still needed in some areas. “The number one source of health spending in Africa is out of pocket,” he said, in other words, “the poor foot the bill.” Specific assistance programs, e.g. HIVtuberculosis, malaria or mother’s Child health takes the burden off people, but where they stop, “someone has to pay the price,” he said.
“The government has not increased its budget. That means these people have to increase their out-of-pocket costs [spending] Coverage services,” he added.
Looking back on the past year, Dr. Kaseya said: dangerous disease outbreak Damaged by aid cuts, including Mpox in Democratic Republic of Congo. When donors who pledged funding for vaccines, testing and health workers fell short of their commitments, “when they stopped doing that, we saw testing rates in the Democratic Republic of the Congo drop from 60% to less than 32%,” he said.
One way to solve this problem is to establish production bases for drugs and medical equipment on the African continent, reducing African countries’ dependence on donors.
Dr. Kasea said that there are already more than 500 medical manufacturers in Africa, including South Africa, Egypt, Rwanda and Senegal, which makes him “optimistic about Africa’s development prospects.” For example, the African continent is moving towards self-reliance in purchasing syringes, while in some countries 97% of antibiotics are now purchased locally.
“We need to understand how to take a more balanced, positive and optimistic view of the continent’s future” while focusing on raising domestic capital, building local manufacturing and being more proactive in pandemic preparedness, he added.
“When we do that, we start having a conversation with our brothers and sisters from around the world: ‘Do you still think you have to dictate how we sit down and talk together?’
“This is the reform of the global health architecture we are talking about.”
This article is part of The Independent Rethinking global aid project