Africa’s health financing crisis demands urgent action, says Godongwana

AFRICA must urgently strengthen its health financing systems and reduce reliance on increasingly unreliable external aid, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said on Thursday.

- SIPHELELE DLUDLA

Speaking at the African Union's 8th Specialized Technical Committee on Finance, Monetary Affairs, Economic Planning and Integration, Godongwana warned that the continent's health sector faces multiple crises, including underfunding, overstretched systems, and rising debt-service obligations.

"This challenge adds on the existing increase in our debt-service obligations and diminished fiscal space to make available for domestic health spending," he said.

"These challenges demand that we take charge in strengthening the resilience of our health financing whilst strategically weaning ourselves off external financing that is becoming less reliable."

Godongwana highlighted South Africa’s 2025 G20 Presidency as an opportunity to place Africa’s concerns at the centre of global economic reform.

He reiterated South Africa's G20 Presidency of “Solidarity, Equality, and Sustainability,” calling for collective global action on health financing, reforms to an unequal financial system, and domestic resource mobilization across the continent.

"Through “Solidarity, we recognize that global health challenges require collective solutions. South Africa is supporting a new global compact on health financing, a model that is proactive and not crisis driven and is solidarity based," Godongwana said.