Online Reporter
Oliver Kazunga
Senior Reporter
A STEEP decline in foreign health funding is being recast by Zimbabwe and other Southern African Development Community (Sadc) countries as an opportunity to build stronger, self-reliant healthcare systems driven by domestic resources, regional cooperation and local pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Regional leaders meeting at the inaugural Joint Meeting of SADC Ministers Responsible for Finance and Health in Harare last week struck an optimistic tone, arguing that while official development assistance for health had fallen sharply between 2021 and 2025, the changing global financing landscape presented Africa with a defining moment to take greater ownership of its health systems.
The meeting, attended by finance and health ministers, senior treasury and health officials, as well as development partners, agreed that member States should accelerate reforms to sustainably finance healthcare, expand local production of medicines and vaccines, and reduce dependence on external assistance.
Zimbabwe, which has historically benefited from international support for HIV, tuberculosis and malaria programmes, is already among six SADC member States leading national health financing dialogues aimed at identifying practical reforms to mobilise domestic resources.
Addressing delegates, Health and Child Care Minister Dr Douglas Mombeshora called for sustained investment in epidemic preparedness, saying resilient health systems would be indispensable as the region transitions towards greater self-reliance.
He said predictable financing, pooled procurement, local pharmaceutical manufacturing and stronger regional cooperation would better safeguard lives and economies.
“We have learnt this lesson at a terrible price through Covid-19 and through every Ebola outbreak the continent has confronted, and the lesson is consistent – preparedness is always cheaper than response.
“The Africa Reset, the drive towards Africa’s self-reliance, must be matched by African financing.
“Our partners are welcome and valued, but the primary responsibility for defending our people is, and must remain, our own,” said Dr Mombeshora.
Zimbabwe’s pharmaceutical industry already includes manufacturers such as Varichem, Datlabs and NatPharm, which, if adequately resourced, have the capacity to produce and supply the region with essential medicines for diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
Botswana Vice President and Minister of Finance, Mr Ndaba Nkosinathi Gaolathe, described the current moment as a turning point for the continent.
“The world that financed African health over the last three decades has fundamentally changed.
“We have witnessed a staggering 70 percent decline in official development assistance for health between 2021 and 2025.
“Programmes that millions depended on, including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, maternal and child health, are all experiencing unprecedented financing uncertainty,” he said.
Mr Gaolathe said the evolving global environment should inspire African governments to assume greater responsibility for financing healthcare.
“The era of easy aid is over – it is time for a new era of African self-reliance; the responsibility of taking care of our people falls squarely on us as governments,” he said.
SADC executive secretary Mr Elias Magosi said the region had already begun laying the foundations for sustainable health financing, with Zimbabwe joining Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia and Tanzania in convening national health financing dialogues.
“These dialogues have demonstrated strong national commitments to strengthening domestic health financing, providing important platforms for identifying financial priorities – and critical reforms towards more sustainable and resilient health systems within member States,” he said.
Mr Magosi said deeper regional integration would also help lower healthcare costs through pooled procurement of medicines and medical supplies.
He said collective purchasing under Sadc’s pooled procurement framework could reduce medicine procurement costs by as much as 70 percent while creating a viable regional market for pharmaceutical manufacturers.
“Member States are continually encouraged to leverage the region’s combined market potential, representing a population of well over 380 million people.
“Through pooled procurement and harmonised regulations under the SADC pooled procurement services, member States can save up to 70 percent of costs by aggregating demand, securing essential medicines, reducing waste, strengthening supply chain resilience, and creating demand needed to support local manufacturing and indeed jobs.
“Going it alone is plainly costly, unsustainable, and makes it less resilient and attractive to the pharmaceutical industry,” he said.
While noting that no SADC member State has yet met the African Union’s Abuja Declaration target of allocating 15 percent of national budgets to health, Mr Magosi said the current funding squeeze provided an opportunity to accelerate reforms that would make health systems more resilient and less vulnerable to external shocks.
African union Development Agency-NEPAD chief executive officer Mrs Nardos Bekele-Thomas said Africa should regard its health financing challenge as a catalyst for investment, industrialisation and economic transformation.
Although the continent is home to about 16 percent of the world’s population and bears 26 percent of the global disease burden, it accounts for only about two percent of global health spending and faces an annual health financing gap of approximately US$66 billion.
However, she said Africa’s healthcare and wellness sector could grow into a US$259 billion industry by 2030, generating an estimated 16 million jobs across pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, manufacturing and digital health.
Mrs Bekele-Thomas said Sadc already possesses many of the building blocks required to become Africa’s leading regional health manufacturing hub, supported by pooled procurement, regulatory harmonisation and investment platforms capable of attracting private capital.
