Regional Actors Addressing Health Financing in Africa: Comparative Advantages, Challenges, and Opportunities

The African continent has seen pronounced movement toward regionalism in recent years to catalyze development and strengthen African integration and unity. Regional bodies are actively contributing to the development of many sectors, including health, which is increasingly recognized as essential to human and economic development in Africa. Successful health financing systems are critical for achieving health targets and reaching universal health coverage, a widely supported development goal. Thus, sustainable health financing is now at the forefront of development dialogue. 

African regional actors have an important role to play in supporting increased coordination and harmonization of donor efforts for financing the health sector, while also strengthening budget execution and demonstrating results from existing funding to show returns on investment.  Understanding how regional actors operate, as well as their comparative advantages and challenges, will ensure that governments, policymakers, donors, and implementers effectively partner with them to improve health outcomes and achieve universal health coverage. This brief is part of the ASH project Regional Health Sector Actor Landscape Series.