Washington, D.C., November 16, 2021 – In partnership with the Health Finance Coalition (HFC), GBCHealth, and Amref Health Africa, Wilton Park today hosted the first in a three-part event series of interactive dialogues that aims to mobilize private capital and private enterprise to help achieve and accelerate public health goals for Africa.
Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 16% of the world’s population and 23% of the global disease burden, yet it claims only 1% of total health spending. This extraordinary gap between health needs and resourcing presents a major development challenge for the continent.
To achieve Africa’s health goals a new approach is needed: one that positions private, return-seeking capital to co-invest alongside domestic and donor resources as a means of scaling transformative health solutions through private enterprise or public-private partnerships; this has been termed the Capital Stack Approach.
This series, “Private Capital to Achieve Public Health Goals in Africa,” brings together high-level stakeholders with the aim of “making the capital stack real,” providing concrete opportunities for investment and action, and supporting the larger vision of transforming health financing in Africa.
The first of the series was launched Tuesday 16th of November 2021, with additional meetings to be scheduled for February and April 2022. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization opened the series with a video message highlighting the financing gap to achieve the SDG 3 goals in Sub-Saharan Africa and thanking the participants for engaging in this timely dialogue.
Partner Quotes:
“Improving access to care in underserved communities in Africa will require stronger partnerships that leverage the unique skills and resources of governments, civil society, and the private sector alike. The private sector's biggest potential impact towards universal health coverage lies in increasing business investment and developing scalable market-based approaches," said Dr. Githinji Gitahi, CEO of Amref Health Africa. "These meetings will be a great step towards public-private collaborations for health financing."
“We need to reimagine health financing for a post-COVID world – aligning public and private capital to scale innovation and transform health systems,” explained Martin Edlund, CEO of Malaria No More, host of the Health Finance Coalition. “This series hosted by Wilton Park is an opportunity to convene stakeholders from the public, private and NGO sectors to build momentum for blended health financing models in Africa.”
“Leveraging private capital to achieve public health goals in Africa could not be closer to our work,” said Lesley-Anne Long, President and CEO of GBCHealth. “This series brings together leaders from across many sectors and signifies the vast benefits of working in partnership.”
“One of Wilton Park’s mandates is to bring diverse groups together to discuss critical global challenges.” said Nancy Lee, Programme Director at Wilton Park. “Bridging the health resourcing gap in sub-Saharan Africa is one such challenge and will require action from a wide range of stakeholders across both public and private sectors. This series will provide an opportunity for these actors to come together and find new ways of working to accelerate health outcomes on the continent”
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For more information or interview requests, please contact Jennie Bragg at jennie.bragg@malarianomore.org.
About Malaria No More
Malaria No More envisions a world where no one dies from a mosquito bite. Fifteen years into our mission, our work has contributed to historic progress toward this goal. Now, we’re mobilizing the political commitment, funding, and innovation required to achieve what would be one of the greatest humanitarian accomplishments – ending malaria within our generation. For more information, visit www.malarianomore.org.
