Accra, Ghana: 29th – 31st August 2022: In order to strengthen Africa’s health coverage through increased domestic health investments, the AUDA-NEPAD Development Fund (AUDF) held the first Technical Meeting for the West Africa Regional Health Financing Hub (RHFH) Process in Accra, Ghana from the 29th to the 31st of August 2022.

Representatives of Health Ministries from  the ECOWAS Member States -Burkina Faso, Cote D’Ivoire, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone participated in the meeting, in addition to the West African Health Organization (WAHO), and AUDA-NEPAD.

The West Africa RHFH Technical meeting precedes several engagements with Member States from the SADC and EAC region. Following these sessions, the AUDA-NEPAD Development Fund has been working closely with Member States in driving and harnessing health financing mechanisms on the continent. In order to accelerate the implementation of the ALM- Investing in Health initiative, AUDA-NEPAD convened a meeting of ECOWAS Member States to kickstart the process of establishing a regional health financing hub in the West Africa region as per the directive from the Heads of State to support the strengthening of health systems in Africa.  An overview of the current health financing landscape within the ECOWAS Member States was highlighted and the resources required from the RHFH to support health financing within the region.

The meeting examined and highlighted the case for establishing the Regional Health Financing Hub in the West African region. Importantly, this workshop ensured that the RHFHs are tailored to the Health Financing landscape of the West Africa region and the Member States’ aspirations.

“Let us take this convening as an opportunity to take stock of where we are and craft an operational framework outlining how we move forward in the operationalization of the Regional Health Financing Hubs (RHFH)”, said Senior Advisor of the AUDA-NEPAD Development Fund (AUDF), Prof. Aggrey Ambali.

Member States from the West Africa region noted the importance of using the platform to foster cross learning. Mr. Sani Ali (WAHO) said “As one can see, in West Africa, we have a regional framework for dialogue and actions around health financing.  The AU initiative implemented by the AUDA-NEPAD aimed at designing and establishing Regional Health Financing Hubs is a welcome development. We are looking forward to having more support from the continental initiative to address implementation and scaling up challenges we are experiencing.”

To date, AUDA-NEPAD continues to work closely with Member States to provide strategic and technical support with the aim of improving domestic health financing. While significant headway in supporting the Member States has been made to strengthen health financing mechanisms, AUDA-NEPAD endeavors to enable the full operationalisation of the RHFH and concretise the recommendations and roadmap from this meeting. “I am very happy with the outcomes of this workshop and look forward to seeing the recommendations implemented by the team”, said the AU Chair, Senegal, during the meeting’s closing remarks.

For more information, contact, Ms. Nqobile Zwane, Public Relations Officer, AUDA-NEPAD Development Fund, nqobilez@nepad.org