Nearly half of the mothers who die during pregnancy and childbirth are from Africa, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
WHO estimates that poor reproductive health accounts for up to 18 percent of the global burden of disease, and 32 percent of the total burden of disease for women of reproductive age.
Indeed, Africa, which accounts for about one tenth of the world’s population and 20 percent of global births, often face the dilemma of responding to outbreaks to save lives.
Furthermore, since the outset of Covid-19, African countries have channeled a greater proportion of their resources to responding to the pandemic, with very little or nothing available for other health care services such as sexual and reproductive health.
In its response to Africa’s reproductive health challenges, the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation (STBF) awarded a grant of $11.5 million to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) in January 2021.
‘Any disease outbreak of this magnitude disrupts traditional vertical programmes, including maternal and child health, and this causes serious problems within the already weak health systems’, Director of Africa CDC, Dr John Nkengasong, said in a statement.
‘Health care workforce is very important, and Africa must find ways to strengthen its workforce’.
The grant is expected to help strengthen public health workforce across Africa, safeguard sexual and reproductive health and rights services especially during public health emergencies.
‘It will enable Africa CDC to accelerate implementation of some aspects of its framework for public health workforce development through the Kofi Annan Global Health Leadership Programme and through direct support for capacity building in maternal and reproductive health epidemiology’, the statement read.
Similarly, the Africa CDC received a grant of $12 million from the Rockefeller Foundation.
The grant, which was also awarded in January 2021, aims to expand the geographic coverage of testing and strengthening of contact tracing for Covid-19.
It will also support a broader effort to accelerate equitable access to testing technologies, increase testing of asymptomatic persons, and reduce community transmission of the disease in sub-Saharan Africa.
Testing and tracing remain two of the strongest public health interventions for containing Covid-19 Africa, which houses about 1.3 billion people.
But only a little above 30 million tests have been reported since the beginning of the pandemic.
Health authorities in Africa believe by scaling up testing and tracing, they will have access to more reliable epidemiologic data to advise governments, businesses and the public on how to better manage the pandemic and mitigate its socioeconomic impact.
Source: Africa CDC
Photo source: Africa CDC
