In Africa thousands of people die every day from easily preventable and treatable diseases like HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria and diarrhoea. Maternal death rates are increasing and life expectancy is worsening.
Because of the poverty that exists in the continent, where 76% of the population lives on less than a pound a day, access to health care, clean water, sanitation and education is limited, especially in remote rural areas and urban slums.
There are acute shortages of African health workers at every level. According to the World Health Organisation, Africa needs one million more health workers to meet basic health needs.
In the UK there is one doctor for every 435 people. In Sudan there is one doctor for every 100,000 people. Some people have to walk for days to access even the most basic health care. When they get there, the health workers may not have the skills required and are overworked; their equipment is old and there are no drug supplies.
Health spending in Africa is woefully inadequate. The continent bears 25% of the global burden of disease, but only 3% of the world’s health workers, paid with less than 1% of global health expenditure.
The small funds available for health care are often not directed to those that need it most. Greater emphasis is placed on curative health care in hospitals and health centres in major towns and cities, rather than education for prevention and basic treatment in poor rural and urban communities.
Community health workers - community members who have received basic health training to provide basic health care in their communities – have a huge potential to reach people, but they are often not recognised or supported.
There are weakness in all levels of Africa’s health systems, which includes the formal sector (hospitals, health centres, training institutes and laboratories) and informal community-based health care, but the greatest problem is the gap between the two.
One of the key reasons for this gap is that poor people are not empowered to articulate their health needs and concerns to those in power, and therefore do not have a say in how health policies are developed and carried out.