Africa

Working together for better health access in Africa

We are focusing on problem areas where collaboration and scaling can have the most impact in women's health, digitisation, care provision and financing

How Do We Address The Disease Burden In Africa?

Regional Aspirations

Equity and access

Nearly half of Africa’s citizens are currently denied fair and equitable access to healthcare. Achieving universal health coverage (UHC) is vital to tackling this.

Disease prevention

By adopting broad prevention plans, African countries could better deal with the significant rise in noncommunicable diseases and the lack of health services targeting them.

Health costs

Millions of African citizens incur catastrophic healthcare costs each year, which could be improved by collaboration, digitisation and greater efficiency driven by accurate data.

Our Story

Movement Health started its journey in Africa in 2022. Kicking off in Algeria and South Africa, each country began by recruiting local experts to country expert panels where they reviewed local research, shared insights and together decided where action at both a system and service level will have the most impact.

In Algeria, a group of experts from the health ecosystem held a series of four round table meetings where they explored the challenges facing Algerian healthcare, before focusing on three key areas where they believe action can lead to the most impact. These are
1. Educating the workforce for the digitisation of the healthcare sector
2. Adapting care provision to the societal changes
3. Streamlining the healthcare financing situation

As a result of the expert panels prioritisation exercise, an innovation challenge will be held in Algeria in 2023 with scalable solutions welcome from anywhere in the world.

Meanwhile in South Africa, a group of local experts have been meeting with a focus on women's health. Ensuring equal access to public services, and ensuring those services respond to the specific needs of women’s health, is fundamental to reducing poverty, inequality, and advancing the rights of women and girls. However, it is clear that in South Africa, one of the world's most inequitable societies, women and girls are at the periphery of the healthcare system. They struggle to access healthcare workers, medication, treatment, and mental support. One of the ways this inequity is clear s in the late diagnosis and high mortality rates in diseases such as cervical and breast cancer. The Movement Health expert panel are focusing their attention here, looking at potential solutions to this core need.

Africa

Movement Health is working with a broad range of expert stakeholders in Algeria, Ghana and South Africa. Each country has its own unique challenges and opportunities but each country is working towards the Sustainable Development Goals and Universal Health Coverage, and does so with the realisation that radical transformation is needed to make these ambitious goals a reality. Each country prioritises local problems where collaboration and scaling at both a service and system level can make a difference. They do so knowing that they will share insights, experiences and solutions across the region and worldwide.

Less than half of Africa’s citizens (52%) – some 615 million people – have access to the healthcare they need

Achieving UHC is vital to ensure fair and equitable access

Each year, approximately 97 million Africans, representing 8.2% of the continent’s population, incur “catastrophic healthcare costs”

The problem is particularly acute in Sierra Leone, Egypt and Morocco according to the AHAIC.

Healthy life expectancy in Africa has increased on average by 10 years per person to 56 years of age between 2000 and 2019.

Significant achievements were made in preventing and treating infectious diseases, but this was offset by the dramatic rise in noncommunicable diseases and the lack of health services targeting these diseases

Africa

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South Africa

The South African expert panel have decided to focus on women centred care to reduce gendered inequities and improve health and well-being for women. The experts are placing a particular focus on cervical and breast cancer care.

Africa

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Algeria

In Algeria, the expert panel has prioritised three areas of focus: digitisation, care provision and financing. In 2023, an innovation challenge will be held to look for tested, scalable solutions in these areas.

Africa

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Ghana

The Ghana Movement Health activity is just getting started. As a first step, the local expert panel is coming together to identify and prioritise the country's greatest health system challenges.