African governments must prioritize health investment amid shrinking international aid and rising economic pressures, global health experts said at a recent Devex event on the sidelines of the 78th World Health Assembly.
“Health has been consistently deprioritized in national budgets, especially in poorer countries, and it's not clear why that happened,” said Kalipso Chalkidou, director of health financing and economics at the World Health Organization. But one possibility is that it was due to too much aid funding for health, so “governments felt that it would be inefficient to put more of their own money there.”
This moment, though, with the numerous shocks countries are facing, including the sudden U.S. aid freeze, presents challenges. Donald Kaberuka, former president of the African Development Bank, said it will require “thinking out of the box” and innovating.
About the author
Adva Saldinger@AdvaSal
Adva Saldinger is a Senior Reporter at Devex where she covers development finance, as well as U.S. foreign aid policy. Adva explores the role the private sector and private capital play in development and authors the weekly Devex Invested newsletter bringing the latest news on the role of business and finance in addressing global challenges. A journalist with more than 10 years of experience, she has worked at several newspapers in the U.S. and lived in both Ghana and South Africa.
