Tracking Africa’s Progress towards Improving It's Health Systems and Achieving UHC

To track how various African countries are doing towards achieving universal health coverage, FutureProofing Healthcare Organization developed an initiative called the Africa Sustainability Index. The African Sustainability Index is a tool used to analyze how healthcare systems in Africa are performing, looking at areas to prioritize on and that need reorientation.

This tool compares and contrasts vital signs performances such as access, quality, health status, financing, innovation, and wider factors from 18 African countries [1]. In general, its key findings suggest that most of these African countries have access but the quality of these health services is poor [1]. Therefore to reach universal health coverage (UHC) goals holistic policies prioritizing both access and quality were highly suggested [1].

The next key findings suggested that most African countries had similar challenges when it came to financing healthcare. Experts agreed that while there is no universal solution to this, regional collaboration and exchange of best practices ideas among countries could help overcome these structural financial barriers [1]. And lastly, innovation had the lowest mean score and showed this was an area that needed the most improvement in the African health systems [1].

To improve on innovation, adopting new technologies and learning from one another was highly recommended [1]. South Africa, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Tanzania are the four African countries doing good when it comes to innovation [1]. Looking at all of the key findings from this index, I am a bit surprised by it. I would have thought finances will have the lowest mean score. African countries have a hard time coming up with a budget to sustain their health system. And even when a budget is allocated for that purpose, you will always have some greedy people who end up embezzling these funds.

I decided to go further and explore my country's progress. According to the index, Cameroon ranked 15th out of 18th position with a score of 40. Cameroon ranked first in the availability of ICU beds and great access to health services such as family planning, Hiv testing, anti-retroviral therapy, antenatal care, and medicines [1]. Cameroon has low numbers of qualified personnel such as dentists, anaesthesiologists, and pharmaceuticals [1].

When it came to the overall health status of our population we ranked highest in the rates of suicides [1]. Cameroon needs to invest in more mental health workers. Also, Cameroon came in 2nd when it came to pharmaceutical innovations having the highest number of patent publications [1]. Lastly, Cameroon ranked 14th when it came to having the ability to test for multiple drug resistance to tuberculosis [1].

Quite surprised and shocked to learn that Cameroon has the highest rate of suicide cases as compared to other African countries. Mental health is a sensitive topic and one not well talked about in Cameroon. Thanks to the African Sustainability Index tool, politicians, health, and public health professionals now have access to data that will enable one to identify areas that need improvements, invest in, pass policies, and practices that will help African countries achieve their UHC goals.

If African leaders are willing to make the necessary investments, share data, learn from each other, and collaborate then achieving UHC is not far-fetched.

References

1. Africa Sustainability Index. (2021). Retrieved 12 April 2021, from https://futureproofinghealthcare.com/africa-sustainability-index