The Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Claver Gatete, has urged African governments to adequately finance and build resilient health systems capable of sustaining progress amid tightening fiscal conditions.
Gatete made the remark at the high-level forum on Sustainable Health Financing, on the margins of the 58th Session of the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (CoM2026) in Tangier, Morocco, according to a statement issued by the ECA on Thursday.
“We meet at a moment when the foundations of health financing in Africa are shifting, rapidly and irreversibly,” Gatete said, noting that rising health needs and narrowing fiscal space is imperative for African governments not only to finance the sector but restructure it.
Gatete emphasized that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) offers a decisive opportunity to reimagine Africa’s health systems at scale.
“Too often, the AfCFTA is viewed as a trade agreement. But it is far more than that; it is a development architecture,” he stated.
With a projected market of 1.5 billion people and a combined GDP of US$3.4 trillion, the AfCFTA, he noted, could move Africa “from fragmented national systems to integrated continental solutions.”
He highlighted growing momentum in regional pharmaceutical manufacturing, including in Morocco, Algeria, Rwanda and South Africa and called for harmonized regulatory standards, pooled procurement, and connected value chains.
The ECA Executive Secretary spoke against the backdrop of a sobering fiscal landscape. In 2022, Africa spent approximately $145 billion on health, less than half of which came from public sources.
“Households and external assistance continue to bear a disproportionate share of costs,” he said, warning that in several countries, debt servicing now exceeds health spending.
“This is the reality we confront: rising health needs in the midst of shrinking fiscal space,” he added.
Gatete outlined four priorities for repositioning Africa’s health financing architecture that include redesigning health financing systems, expanding health insurance and risk profiling; deepening private sector engagement and investing in capacity and resilience.
MG/gik/APA