Despite the notable progress made in improving population health outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa over the past two decades, considerable health challenges remain throughout the region. Significant health inequalities, a large burden of diseases including major outbreaks in recent times, coupled with limited capacity and capability of a skilled health workforce, poor resource allocation and insufficient coordination, cohesion as well as accountability have compounded the difficulties of sub-optimal access to basic healthcare services.
Whilst existing regional and global partnerships and initiatives have produced some progress within the region, African governments, policymakers and key stakeholders continue to search for sustainable public health policy options that are relevant and appropriate to the population of the region.
The Chatham House Public Health Africa Policy Forum aims to facilitate the development of evidence-based policy options that are relevant and appropriate to sustainable health developments in Africa – for consideration by governments, health partners and wider public health stakeholders.
With strong asset-based ethos of working in partnerships with governments, leading experts, policy institutions and relevant stakeholders in Africa, the forum aims to provide well-informed and credible research, analysis and policy options that take into account the region’s social, economic and intellectual assets as a means to achieving sustainable health solutions. The forum will create an enabling platform that will serves as a nexus for strengthening research translational capabilities for informing better public health policies and outcomes in Africa.
The forum will also focus on both the specific and interrelated themes of sustainable public health system developments either in a particular country or across the sub-Saharan region as a whole and it will collaborate and complement other African initiatives and programmes within Chatham House.
Aliko Ahmed is the convener of the forum.