Amid bleak global economic and development aid trends, Africa’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) is piloting innovative financing solutions and doubling down on efforts to get member states to invest more domestic funds in health.

A week ago, Africa CDC launched a new financing guide for member states and on Friday the continental body announced that it was starting to implement the first phase, which will focus on “updating national health financing plans in 30 countries, piloting innovative revenue mechanisms, and launching transparency dashboards”. 

The strategy urges governments to allocate at least 15% of national budgets to health, as agreed by the 2001 Abuja Declaration, which was adopted during another crisis: the HIV and tuberculosis pandemics.

Its proposals on innovative financing include “solidarity levies on airline tickets, alcohol, and mobile services, while exploring how Africa’s US$95 billion in annual diaspora remittances can support national health priorities”, according to the body. 

Finally, it proposes blended financing to “unlock public and private capital for critical investments in infrastructure, digital health, and local production of vaccines and medical supplies”.

Phase 2 (2026–2030) will scale successful approaches and aims to ensure that at least 20 countries can finance 50% or more of their health budgets through sustainable domestic sources.

“Africa cannot continue outsourcing its health security,” said Dr. Jean Kaseya, Director General of Africa CDC. “This strategy is not about aid—it’s about ownership. We are building a future where Africa invests in its people, drives its own health agenda, and responds to crises with speed, strength, and self-reliance.”

Mpox continues to rise

Meanwhile, at the Africa CDC briefing on Thursday, Professor Yap Boum, the Africa CDC’s deputy head of the Incident Management Support Team, reported that Uganda’s mpox outbreak is continuing to spread, increasing by 30% in the past week (from 190 to 247 confirmed cases).

Boum attributed the spread of Clade 1b to complex sexual networks, including sex workers with multiple daily clients.

“Mpox, specifically the Clade 1b strain, is sexually transmissible. Yesterday, Uganda’s incident manager informed us that there are sex workers who have up to 10 clients per day,” said Boum.

“Sexual networks remain the key driver of the outbreak [in Uganda], with cases spreading in slums, semi-urban, and urban areas. Last week, Mbarara City and Masaka City accounted for 50% of daily incidence,” Boum noted.

Unlike the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), however, Uganda is managing to test all its suspected mpox cases, 60% of which have been positive.

Uganda has also faced Ebola and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) outbreaks in the past month.

While mpox cases in the DRC decreased slightly over the past week, the burden is likely underestimated because of challenges with testing, which has been adversely affected by the withdrawal of US funding and conflict in North and South Kivu.

Kinshasa was also affected by torrential rains in the past week that resulted in the Limete Health Center and other health facilities being submerged under water, damaged roads and power and water outages across multiple health facilities in Kinshasa.

However, testing in the DRC has risen over the past week from 18.4% of suspected cases to 21.7%, largely as a result of decentralised laboratory services. Three new Gene Xpert testing machines have been deployed and 26 laboratories are now functional.

Image Credits: Africa CDC .