Decision on Domestic Health Financing (ALM-Investing in Health)

DECISION ON DOMESTIC HEALTH FINANCING (ALM-INVESTING IN HEALTH)

The Assembly,

1. MINDFUL of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, and the critical importance of strengthening and investing in national health systems;

2. RECOGNISING that women and girls have been disproportionately affected by the inequalities in health care provision, and that this has only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic;

3. RECALLING the Declaration on the Africa Leadership Meeting (ALM) on Investing in Health, adopted in February 2019;

4. COMMENDS H.E. President Paul Kagame, AU Leader for Domestic Health Financing, for the leadership and strong commitment he continues to provide in advancing the Domestic Health Financing mandate;

5. ALSO COMMENDS the Commission for the significant progress made in maintaining health financing high on the continental and global agenda;

6. TAKES NOTE of the outcomes of the virtual regional meetings of AU Ministers of Finance and Ministers of Health, held in 2020;

7. REITERATES the importance of regular discussions between African Ministries of Finance and Health to advance the health financing reforms;

8. REQUESTS the Commission to update the presentation of the data in the Africa Scorecard on Domestic Financing for Health, by grouping countries into four quartiles according to their total per capita domestic spending on health (government budget and compulsory pre-paid pools), and ranking countries within each quartile according to the WHO/World Bank Service Coverage Index to be considered by the STC on Health, Population and Drug Control (STC- HPDC) for submission to the Policy Organs of the AU;

9. ALSO REQUESTS the Commission to speed up implementation of Item 6(v) of the February 2019 ALM-lnvesting in Health Declaration, regarding working with partners to create regional platforms to support Member States to increase domestic health financing, by assigning responsibility for coordinating this mandate to AUDA-NEPAD.