2001 ABUJA DECLARATION; of country’s budget

in their health care systems. They must honour their constitutions and the international human rights treaties they have ratified and guarantee the right to health. The right to health includes ensuring the availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of health care goods, facilities and services. The Abuja Declaration is a significant political commitment that supports African countries’ obligations to fulfil the right to health. COVID-19 must mark a turning point for health financing and healthcare services on the continent,” reads the report.

Meanwhile, the report discloses that the Coronavirus pandemic had revealed an acute shortage of critical and life-saving equipment such as ventilators and intensive care beds in Africa. According to the WHO in mid-April, there were just 2 000 ventilators across 41 African countries and 5 000 intensive care beds across 43. Ten countries did not have any ventilators at all. And, to make matters worse, Africa had a paltry number of medical personnel trained to operate them.

Declarations

The Abuja Declarations and Frameworks for Action on Roll Back Malaria was a pledge made in 2001 by members of the AU in a conference in Abuja, Nigeria. In it, the member nations are said to have pledged to increase their health budget to at least 15 per cent of the State’s annual budget and requested Western donor countries to increase their support.

Tracking the progress of the efforts, WHO reported in 2010 that only one African country had reached that target, while 26 had increased health expenditures and 11 had reduced them. Nine others had not had a noticeable negative or positive trend.

“The dire shortage of medical capacity has put a spotlight on the poor state of public health systems in Africa and the distance yet to be travelled to ensure that health care is affordable and accessible to all persons. A recent report by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation shows that only ten African countries provide free and universal healthcare,” further reads the report.

An Afro Barometer report also found that even before COVID-19, more than half of all people on the continent could not access necessary medical care at least once a year.

Most people’s experience of accessing public health facilities includes waiting in long queues, often never getting the care they seek, or having to use bribes to get attention.

According to the report, at the heart of Africa’s fragile health systems, there is a perennial failure by governments to prioritise health and allocate adequate resources.

Elusive

The Abuja Declaration sought to correct this by securing a commitment of at least 15 per cent of the national budget for the health sector. But this target has proven elusive for many countries. In 2011, 10 years after the declaration, 27 African countries had increased the proportion of their expenditure allocated to health. However, only two countries, Rwanda and South Africa had reached the 15 per cent target. Seven had reduced their health budgets as a proportion of their national budgets.

By 2016, the situation had deteriorated. 19 African countries were spending less on health as a percentage of their public spending than in the early 2000s.

‘‘The COVID-19 pandemic must jolt all African governments to adequately invest in their health care systems.

RatifieD

‘‘They must honour their constitutions and the international human rights treaties they have ratified and guarantee the right to health.

“The right to health includes ensuring availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of health care goods, facilities and services. The Abuja Declaration is a significant political commitment that supports African countries’ obligations to fulfil the right to health. COVID-19 must mark a turning point for health financing and healthcare services on the continent,” further read the report.