Prioritizing efficiency and innovative domestic financing mechanisms could enable governments across Africa to transform healthcare systems from ones defined by persistent gaps into catalysts for sustainable growth and resilience, experts said.

According to Nardos Bekele-Thomas, chief executive officer of the African Union Development Agency, health must be positioned as an economic growth sector capable of delivering measurable social impact, strengthening productivity, and advancing the sovereignty and sustainability of the continent's health systems.

"For decades, we have spoken about Africa's health systems primarily through the lens of expenditure consumption, treating the health of our citizens and its economic implications as a social cost to be contained — how much governments must spend, how much partners could support, and how wide the financing gap remains. But today, a different reality is emerging," she said.

Bekele-Thomas said demographic expansion, rapid urbanization, technological adoption and rising domestic demand are converging to shape a rapidly expanding global health economy — one in which Africa must participate not at the margins, but at the forefront.

The continent, she said, can take part as a producer, innovator and investment destination with the policy and financing sovereignty to set its priorities and drive economic transformation.

However, sustainable financing cannot rely on incremental adjustments alone, she warned. Bekele-Thomas said it requires structural reform and the mobilization of blended and diversified capital to complement public resources, reduce reliance on external financing, and scale up domestic manufacturing and service delivery.

Mekdes Daba, Ethiopia's minister of health, said Africa stands at a pivotal moment in advancing its health security and sovereignty agenda — a mandate reaffirmed by the AU Executive Council under the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

"However, this mandate is unfolding in a rapidly shifting global landscape, marked by recurrent outbreaks that our continent is facing, evolving geopolitical realities and increasing unprecedented external support reduction," she said.

Jean Kaseya, director-general of Africa CDC, described inefficiencies rather than funding shortages as the key challenge undermining Africa's health sector.

He urged African governments to develop innovative financing strategies to counter external funding cuts that have already begun to strain health services.

edithmutethya@chinadaily.com.cn