In the wake of drastic foreign aid cuts, as many countries are burdened with high levels of debt, the African continent is strategizing ways to fill health gaps. There’s one area considered a largely untapped resource: Using debt swaps for health programming.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, or Africa CDC, plans to focus heavily on matchmaking debtors and creditors to broker these deals.
“We are talking about increasing innovative domestic resources, but also bringing some funding that we didn't explore in the past, like the debt swaps,” Dr. Jean Kaseya, director-general of Africa CDC, said. “It’s a major area of focus for Africa CDC for more sustainable financing.”