Healthcare in Africa ‘under growing strain’ after US withdrawal from aid programs, report warns

The United States’ withdrawal from key aid programs has put has put healthcare in Africa and the Global South “under growing strain” a new report warns. The report says the Trump administration’s cuts to programs such as US Agency for International Development (USAID), as well as the Covid-19 pandemic and rising costs of living globally have brought “new urgency” for the need to reform healthcare in the region. The report, titled A Sovereign Future For Health, was created by the Accra Reset, a global health initiative led by John Dramani Mahama, Ghana’s president, that believes countries in Africa and the wider global south should have greater control over their health development rather than being dependent on aid from western countries and international institutions.

A key statistic cited by Mahama and Accra Reset is that Africa produces less than 1% of its vaccines while carrying about 25% of the global disease burden. The report cites how abrupt changes to global health financing, such as the US withdrawal from several global health initiatives, forced countries within the global south to urgently restructure their finances.