During the 2026 World Health Summit Regional Meeting, GHO Media will co-host a breakfast meeting on Global Health Politics and Diplomacy.
Register for virtual attendance here: forms.gle/sBvXA4AS62yn...
#WorldHealthSummit #HealthPolicy #GlobalHealthOtherwise
Health sovereignty is a principle most African leaders will defend in a speech. Zimbabwe just defended it in a negotiating room, at a cost measured in lives.
Was Zimbabwe right? And if the answer is yes, who is responsible for the 1.2 million people now caught in the gap?
Zimbabwe said no. Liberia, with one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world and a health system still recovering from Ebola, said yes, and received roughly $124 million.
The difference in outcome was not explained by health need.
That is not a small argument. The U.S. withdrew from WHO in January 2025. The bilateral MOUs it has since negotiated with African governments include specimen-sharing agreements and data-sharing clauses granting U.S. contractors access to national health surveillance systems.
The government's reasoning was explicit. The deal was described as asymmetrical. Its rejection was linked directly to WHO Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing negotiations. Zimbabwe argued that accepting a bilateral arrangement would undermine African solidarity in multilateral forums.
Zimbabwe's decision: reject a $367 million U.S. bilateral health agreement. The immediate cost: 1.2 million people on HIV treatment now in a funding vacuum.๐งต
#HealthFinancing #AidDependency #HealthSovereignty #GlobalHealth #GlobalHealthOtherwise
Sources: 1. GAVI, the vaccine alliance: www.gavi.org/vaccineswork...
2. WHO: www.who.int/initiatives/...
3. Africa CDC: africacdc.org/news-item/af...
4. UN: www.un.org/ohrlls/news/...
Innovation that is not funded, platformed, or scaled is just a good idea in a room.
What African health innovation deserves far more global attention than it gets? Name it below.
Young Africans are developing affordable health solutions, digitising agriculture, transforming waste into wealth, and building the next generation of tech startups. Yet this potential remains largely untapped.
The problem is not a shortage of ideas. Africa is home to the youngest population on Earth, with over 70% in Sub-Saharan Africa under the age of 30.
Today is World Creativity and Innovation Day. And on a continent where health systems face chronic underfunding, stretched workforces, and uneven access to care, creativity is a survival strategy.
African scientists, institutions and communities have played a vital role in shaping responses to major health challenges. This is not a new story. It is a systematically undertold one.
Drone-delivered vaccines are reaching children in remote Nigerian communities. mRNA vaccine technology transfer hubs, built on the continent, for the continent. Genomic sequencing in South Africa that identified new COVID-19 variants before the rest of the world knew they existed.
Africa's most urgent health challenges have the most creative solutions.๐งต
#WorldCreativityAndInnovationDay #GlobalHealthOtherwise #AfricaHealth #HealthInnovation #GlobalHealth
Is $250M a turning point or a headline? What would a genuinely sovereignty-aligned health security fund look like for Africa?
But it is a signal that Africa CDC is deliberately and publicly building an alternative financing architecture. The question is whether continental institutions can move fast enough to matter when individual governments are signing deals under acute funding pressure.
Two months after that declaration, 18 member states signed bilateral agreements with the U.S. that critics say contradict that agenda. $250 million is not enough to close the gap left by shrinking global health aid.
This matters because Africa CDC has spent the last two years articulating a Health Security and Sovereignty Agenda, insisting, in the words of Director-General Dr. Jean Kaseya, that "health sovereignty does not mean isolation." It signals a new model of partnership where African nations lead.
The funding comes from the European Union, The Global Fund, the Green Climate Fund, and The Pandemic Fund Fund, and targets three of the continent's most underfunded health priorities: antimicrobial resistance, climate-resilient health systems and disease surveillance.
Africa CDC's budget for health security: chronically underfunded. The One Health Summit in Lyon: $250 million secured.๐งต
#HealthFinancing #HealthSovereignty #GlobalHealthOtherwise
During the 2026 World Health Summit Regional Meeting, GHO Media will co-host a breakfast meeting on Global Health Politics and Diplomacy.
Register for virtual attendance here: forms.gle/sBvXA4AS62yn...
#WorldHealthSummit #HealthPolicy #GlobalHealthOtherwise
In-person spots are now fully booked for our WHS Nairobi side event. Thank you for the incredible interest!
You can still join us virtually. Register to receive an access link and join the conversation on the future of global health diplomacy
forms.gle/v5Be95mbZa54...
#GlobalHealth #HealthDiplomacy
In-person spots are now fully booked for our WHS Nairobi side event. Thank you for the incredible interest!
You can still join us virtually. Register to receive an access link and join the conversation on the future of global health diplomacy
forms.gle/v5Be95mbZa54...
#GlobalHealth #HealthDiplomacy
Join us in Nairobi on April 29 for a breakfast conversation on what it takes to lead in a disrupted world.
Theme: Thriving in a Disruptive World โ Rethinking Global Health Politics and Diplomacy
Register: forms.gle/33QpzqwLUwME...
#GlobalHealthDiplomacy #HealthLeadership #GlobalHealthOtherwise
Africa just developed the worldโs first rapid diagnostic test for measles. The SURUA Measles IgM test developed by Institut Pasteur Dakar is now the first rapid measles test recommended by WHO for the Global Measles & Rubella Laboratory Network
www.linkedin.com/posts/instit...
#GlobalHealthOtherwise
Simple on paper. Extraordinarily difficult in practice when you're also managing debt, donor transitions and a health workforce crisis.
Do you think Africa's 2026-2028 maternal health roadmap can deliver where previous commitments have fallen short? What would make the difference?
Sally Njiri of the SASA Project put it plainly: "With financing pressures rising, we must rethink how advocacy drives results, ensuring limited resources are used more strategically."
One national plan. One budget. One monitoring system per country.
The African Union has launched a 2026โ2028 roadmap to address the crisis. But the history of maternal health commitments in Africa is long, and the gap between commitment and delivery is longer.
At last week's IMNHC 2026 conference in Nairobi, experts were blunt: progress on maternal health in Africa is being undermined by financing gaps, weak accountability systems and competing government priorities.
Nigeria's maternal mortality ratio: 1,047 deaths per 100,000 live births. The global average: 152 per 100,000. That gap is policy.
#GlobalHealthOtherwise #GlobalHealth #MaternalHealth #ChildHealth