Africa

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Trade
Staff label plastic bags filled with donated blood, in Nairobi, Kenya, on January 9, 2012.

The Neglected Crisis in Safe Blood Access

by Lyudmila Nepomnyashchiy, Thomas Muyombo, Bridon M'baya, Onyekachi C. Subah, Adeel Ishtiaq

Amid declining global aid, access to safe blood risks falling through the cracks. Promising new initiatives offer hope

Governance
A health worker in protective gear walks inside a Red Cross facility in the town of Koidu, in Sierra Leone, on December 19, 2014.

Mpox Surge in Sierra Leone: A Stress Test for National Readiness

by Mohamed Bella Jalloh, Mamadu Baldeh

Epidemics have a habit of revealing whether the last crisis was truly instructive or merely traumatic

Researchers work on a microbe they say can protect mosquitoes from malaria, at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology headquarters, in Nairobi, Kenya on, May 11, 2020.
Trade

Financing Health Innovation in Africa

by Mthuli Ncube

Zimbabwe's finance minister explains how Africa can grow health investments amid high public debt and less foreign aid

A vendor writes as she stands in a legal pharmacy, in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on October 16, 2018.
Trade

Africa's Shift From Aid Dependency

by Muhammad Ali Pate, Philippe Duneton

The future of African health systems will be driven by domestic investment and demand for regionally made drugs

A Ugandan woman living with HIV/AIDS waits to receive antiretroviral drugs from the Infectious Disease Institute, in Kampala, Uganda, on November 30, 2006.
Governance

Life With Less PEPFAR: The First 100 Days in Tanzania and Uganda

by Emily Bass

Stories on the ground support and contradict media narratives about what the HIV program has lost

A worker is seen at Aspen Pharmacare’s Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine facility, in Gqeberha, South Africa, on October 25, 2021.
Governance

A Pandemic Treaty Without Teeth Will Leave Africa and the World Exposed

by Ebere Okereke

Without enforcement mechanisms, even the best commitments risk becoming little more than moral aspirations

A grid of 200 human icons represents excess deaths in Nigeria after potential funding cuts for nutrition treatment. Most icons (in dark blue) indicate baseline deaths, while 40 icons at the bottom (in red) represent additional deaths due to a 49% reduction in treatment. The title reads: "Excess Deaths After Nutrition Treatment Funding Cuts," with a legend showing dark blue as "Baseline" and red as "Additional deaths with 49% reduction in treatment."
Food

Visualizing Nutrition Deficits After USAID's Overhaul

by Abraham D. Flaxman, Sylvia Lutze, Alison Bowman

A new computer simulation illustrates the impact of alternative funding scenarios for child nutrition programs in LMICs

Women attend a talk on sexual health and HIV prevention organised by the Jesuit-founded Association Solidarite Vie e Santa (ASVS - Association of Solidarity, Life and Health) at their welcome centre and clinic in the Tanghin neighbourhood of Ouagadougou April 13, 2013
Gender

Reimagining Sexual and Reproductive Health Without U.S. Involvement

by Anu Kumar, Pansi Katenga

The Helms Amendment and the Mexico City Policy, also known as the Global Gag Rule, are moot without U.S. aid funding

In Uganda’s Bidibidi refugee settlement, a Village Health Team member conducts an in-home health visit to a refugee mother and child.
Poverty

Preserving Refugee Health in Uganda

by Emile Dawisha

Amid U.S. funding cuts, Uganda works to protect its rapidly growing refugee population from deadly diseases

Dr. Stuebing examining a patient who came in for vomiting blood. 
Poverty

Why the World Needs Africa to Be Healthy

by Beth Stuebing

A firsthand account of HIV exposure explains how gutting aid to Africa will create global ripple effects

Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi arrives for the inauguration of Namibia's first female President, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, in Windhoek, Namibia, on March 21, 2025.
Governance

Africa's Quiet Response to U.S. Realignment of Foreign Aid

by Michelle D. Gavin

Characterizing the end of U.S. aid as a catalyst allows African politicians to emphasize their readiness for a new era

A man walks away from a bus that was involved in a disastrous head-on collision with tractor-trailer, in Macheke, Zimbabwe, in January 2024.
Poverty

Zimbabwe's Bus Disaster and the Deadly Cost of Defunding Global Health

by Darren Cuthbert

Global cooperation could reduce disparities in emergency care, but the United States cut programs for disaster relief

Tsegy Kiday, a 34-year-old displaced single mother of five, holds her 14-month-old daughter Mebrihit Hintsa, in Nebelet, Tigray region, Ethiopia, on July 11, 2021.
Gender

"Power of Joy": New Film on Childbirth During Ethiopia's Civil War

by Mariel Ferragamo

The documentary follows a girl who survived a harrowing childbirth to become an ambassador for women's health

An artisanal miner carries raw ore at Tilwizembe, a former industrial copper-cobalt mine, outside of Kolwezi, Democratic Republic of Congo, on June 11, 2016.
Trade

Protecting Miners' Health in Democratic Republic of Congo

by Jonta Kamara, Stephanie Bumba

Growing evidence reveals mining harms pregnancies, and basic medicine near the sites is often inaccessible