Inadequate funding strains Africa CDC's growth

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention marked its seventh anniversary on Wednesday. The organization, which was launched in 2017, has evolved significantly in recent years — both in its effectiveness and the scope of the responsibilities it holds. But it’s also struggling to finance this growth. Director-General Dr. Jean Kaseya said it aims to have a yearly budget of at least $1 billion during a ceremony celebrating the milestone. The organization, over the course of its lifetime, has mobilized more than $2.4 billion from over 200 institutions, he said. In recent years, it played a pivotal role in leading the continent’s COVID-19 pandemic response and has since been on a path toward achieving greater autonomy from the African Union, which includes a new governance structure. It has worked to ramp up local production of pharmaceutical products, such as vaccines, and enhanced the skills of researchers across the continent to perform genomic sequencing, among other efforts. It also inaugurated a new headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, last year, a new reference laboratory, and hosts the largest health emergency operation center in the world. The staff has increased from only 11 people to the health agency now employing over 260 people, Kaseya said. But despite the successes, Kaseya said inadequate funding and limited human resources are challenges facing the agency. This concern was echoed in a blog post published this week by the Center for Global Development, where two of the organization’s staff, Mahlet Kifle Habtemariam and Sofonias Kifle Tessema, underscored that insufficient funding has created a challenge for the organization’s efforts to keep pace with its growing mandate. “This past year, Africa CDC was not able to meet the increasing needs of member states to effectively respond to outbreaks nor was it able to implement programmes to strengthen public health systems sufficiently,” they wrote. One way this manifests is the lack of job security for short-term employees who receive temporary assignments linked to grants and projects and are seconded by other organizations. This limits the technical expertise housed in the agency because of challenges around attracting, developing, and retaining staff. Given the limited resources, strategic prioritization is important, which includes “saying ‘no’ when merited,” they wrote. While funding largely comes from partnerships, such as $1.5 billion from the MasterCard Foundation, there is also a desire to increase contributions from African governments. But that also includes a significant shift in the status quo — as more than 40% of AU’s member states don’t meet their annual financial commitments to the organization. The African Public Health Foundation, which is tasked with mobilizing resources for Africa CDC is “looking inwards across the continent to identify new partners,” its chief executive officer, Dr. Ebere Okereke, told Devex. And the Africa CDC is developing an Africa Epidemics Fund — a pool of finance to assist countries in preparation and response to disease threats on the continent. It will put a governance framework for this fund up for approval from African heads of state in February. But it will also need to fundraise around that fund.