Africa’s Health Crisis: Great Lakes leaders convene in Zambia to seek urgent funding solutions

The summit petitioned African nations to broaden their outreach in seeking support from European partners and other donors to avert an impending health crisis on the continent.

The meeting brought together leaders from the East African Community (EAC), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), alongside health and human rights defenders. Stakeholders, led by SHARP, the East Africa National Networks of AIDS and Health Service Organizations (EANNASO), and Medrap, acknowledged the risk of a humanitarian catastrophe due to severe medical supply shortages.

This concern is especially pressing given the unavailability of critical medical aid from the United States, which could result in increased mortality rates.

Stakeholders emphasized the crucial role international aid has played over the years in sustaining people living with HIV/AIDS, promoting sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) education for adolescents, and raising awareness to combat gender-based violence across Africa.

Speaking at the meeting, Lioka Lioka, Executive Director of the Zambia Medical Research Institute, stressed the need for African nations to unite in addressing the health funding crisis, as it affects the entire continent.

Echoing these sentiments, Dennis Bwana, EANNASO’s Officer in Charge of SHARP project implementation in the Great Lakes region, urged policymakers to adopt, develop, improve, and implement subnational policies and budgets that strengthen healthcare systems in their respective countries.

Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Zambia, and Rwanda have been called upon to prioritize health service providers—including public, private, and faith-based institutions—to ensure the delivery of quality-assured SRH services and essential commodities. This includes mental health support, which is also at risk due to dwindling health supplies.

With development partners withdrawing support, fears of uncertainty are growing, threatening to paralyze health systems, disrupt funding allocations, and cause massive job losses. Africa must urgently integrate and strengthen its domestic healthcare systems to meet critical health needs, particularly in combating tuberculosis (TB) and HIV/AIDS.