See Universal Health Coverage (UHC) as good economic investment, WHO tells Africa
The regional leadership of the World Health Organization (WHO) has called on African leaders to begin to see Universal Health Coverage (UHC) as good economic investment considering the inherent risks in poor health system in parts of the continent.
WHO Africa Regional Director, Dr. Matsidiso Rebecca Moeti gave the advice based on her understanding that “healthier populations drive economic growth, development and prosperity, improved health security, reduced poverty and better gender equity”.
Dr Moeti said this in an address read on her behalf at the third University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) Leadership Lecture Series in memory of Professor John Evans Atta Mills in Ho region of Ghana recently.
The Lecture was on the theme, “Transform health and accelerate sustainable development in Africa: Addressing Universal Health Coverage through Regional and Global Transformation”.
She noted that though health expenditure in Africa went up over the past two decades, the achievement was mainly due to external aids and challenged the continent to take responsibility of the health of its citizens.
While asking African leaders to address “critical gaps” of service provision capacity and quality of care to break barriers to UHC, she revealed that “health protection is still low across Africa”.
Dr. Moeti said UHC was linked to the Sustainable Development Goals and called for compulsory public financing mechanisms, such as tax financing and social insurance to use UHC as pathway to achieving SDG three and others.
