Climate change is among the most significant challenges of the 21st century, with global warming, heat stress, floods, and drought occurring in various parts of the globe, including Africa. The impact of climate change on health is becoming increasingly substantial on the African continent due to weaknesses in economies, infrastructure, and healthcare systems. This review explores the relationship between climate change and emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases in Africa and highlights possible solutions. It was conducted by summarizing and synthesizing related information from relevant scientific publications. This review reveals that climate change significantly contributes to Africa’s emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, including Ebola, Marburg, Lassa fever, dengue fever, malaria, and cholera. The impact of climate change on infectious diseases is variable across the continent, with countries in West and Central Africa experiencing more significant climate change-instigated disease burdens. Multisectoral cooperation between climate change actors, environmental health researchers, policy makers, and political leaders centered in the One Health approach is necessary to develop and implement resilient interventions for climate change-induced emerging and re-emerging infections and related health hazards.

Background: The WHO Regional Office for Africa developed a Member States (MS)-endorsed regional strategy to fast-track the implementation of MS’ national action plans (NAP) on Antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This study explored the perspectives of AMR’s national focal points in MS on the implementation of the priority interventions of the regional strategy in their countries. Methods: An online survey consisting of ratings and discussions covering the implementation of the six priority interventions was conducted. Sums of the scores per priority intervention were obtained, and their percentage to the total possible scores were calculated to categorize the implementation as inadequate (0–25%), basic (26–50%), intermediate (51–75%), or advanced (76–100%). Results: Thirty-six of the forty-seven national AMR focal points responded to the survey between 12 November 2023 and 8 January 2024. The implementations were rated as 37–62% (basic-to-intermediate), with the multisectoral coordination and collaboration committee receiving the highest overall rating (62%, 421/684), while the promotion of sustainable investment for the NAP on AMR received the least overall rating (37%, 257/700). The focal points mainly recommended awareness campaigns, capacity building, and regulations and guidelines to improve the implementation of the AMR strategy. Conclusions: The survey revealed a need to enhance awareness campaigns, support the establishment and functioning of AMR evaluation and monitoring systems, and build the capacity of AMR staff with cost-benefit analysis and budgeting skills. It also showed the necessity to improve awareness and conduct education on AMR, streamline evidence generation through One Health Surveillance systems, integrate initiatives to reduce hospital-acquired infections in the antimicrobial stewardship programs, and enhance regulations and guidelines to optimize the use of antimicrobials.

Africa, which bears approximately a quarter of the global disease burden, is struggling with an increasing incidence of non-communicable diseases while still tackling the challenge of infectious diseases [1,2]. Although COVID-19 did not have the anticipated impact on the continent, Africa is still not sufficiently ready to counter both burdens simultaneously. Pharmaceutical manufacturing in Africa […]

Purpose: This study aimed to assess the effect of the Pathways to Leadership for Health Transformation Programme (PLHTP) by World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa (WHO AFRO) on the leadership practices of its participants at their workplaces in Benin and Niger. Participants and Methods: The study was conducted among leaders of healthcare facilities in Benin and Niger who had participated in the WHO PLHTP. Missions were deployed to Benin and Niger to observe changes in the leadership behaviors and healthcare outcomes at the workplaces of the PLTHP participants. Qualitative data were collected through observations, interviews, and document analysis. The data from the various methods were triangulated thematically to assess the effectiveness of PLHTP. Results: PLHTP improved the leadership caliber and enhanced effective decision-making among the trained leaders in both Benin and Niger. The healthcare leaders in Niger applied the acquired leadership knowledge and skills better as evident in pragmatic resource management, innovation, and staff empowerment compared to Benin where excess resource wastage, suboptimal resource mobilization, poor external communication, and challenges in conflict management and team cohesion neutralized the program’s positive effects. Niger has more participative cultures, accommodative health policies, and investments in healthcare compared to Benin, hence PLHTP had better outcomes in Niger than in Benin. Resistance to change by experienced colleagues of the trained healthcare leaders hindered the introduction of changes in the healthcare facilities in both Benin and Niger. Conclusion: PLHTP improved the leadership capabilities of the participants in both Benin and Niger. Application of the leadership skills had better effect in Niger than Benin since its culture, policies and health systems are more accommodative. Integrating context-specific scenarios in the modules of PLHTP and leveraging digital technologies to make it freely accessible by all healthcare workers can enhance its effectiveness.

Background: The relatively low universal health coverage (UHC) effective coverage indices in most African countries is a cause for concern. Some African countries have effective coverage indices as low as 25 when the global average is 44-48. Although several African countries have initiated UHC activities, their implementation paces and approaches vary. The aim of this systematic mapping study is to describe the publication frequencies on UHC-related activities across African countries. The revealed publication patterns can guide the enhancement of UHC research, implementation, and publication in Africa. Methods: This systematic mapping study was conducted by first establishing a research scope. Then, relevant publications were identified from PubMed, Google Scholar, Google, WHO, and uhc2030 search engines. A classification scheme was developed to guide the systematic mapping of the selected 202 publications. This systematic mapping study describes the variations in UHC-related publication types, contributions, focus areas, and dimensions between 2013 and 2023 across African countries. Results: Analyzing the publications based on the developed classification scheme revealed that WHO was the most frequent author with 17 publications. Secondly, primary research articles (28.2%, n = 57) were the commonest while legislation (0.5%, n = 1) were the rarest. Most of the publications were on the financing and performance of health systems. Conclusions: Overall, publication numbers and evidence value increased as time progressed from 2013 to 2023. The generated systematic maps indicate opportunities for UHC-promoting publication activities. Supporting the development of legislation and authoring systematic reviews are some of the opportunities that stakeholders can leverage to steer UHC in Africa.

The World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa (WHO AFRO) is committed to mainstreaming gender equality in its systems and operations through its transformation agenda. This literature review discusses the steps that the WHO AFRO has taken to mainstream gender equality in its systems, programs, and activities, while highlighting successes and opportunities. A narrative literature review methodology was applied, whereby information relevant to the objective was synthesized from 28 publications that were retrieved after searching keywords combined using Boolean operators in WHO AFRO, PubMed, Google Scholar, and Google search engines. WHO AFRO’s Department of Gender, Women, and Health addresses gender issues. A Gender, Equity, and Rights unit in the WHO AFRO ensures gender considerations in institutional processes and health programs in both regional and country offices in the commitment to “leave no one behind.” It aligns with Sustainable Development Goals 3, 5, and 8 since it extracts gender policies from international statutory instruments and initiatives. The WHO’s gender and parity policies guide the WHO AFRO in gender mainstreaming. WHO AFRO’s initiatives and mechanisms prioritize female representation and present gender considerations and equity as values of human resources for health policies. Its zero tolerance to sexual harassment and an anonymous reporting system for sexual abuse or exploitation, as well as protection from retaliation and assistance, protects against gender-based harassment by WHO workers. The mandatory shortlisting of at least one qualified female in all recruitments in the WHO AFRO, as stipulated in the transformation agenda, creates room for gender balance in the workforce. Mandatory training, advocacy, and projects on the prevention and response to sexual abuse, inclusion, and diversity also constitute the WHO AFRO’s efforts in gender mainstreaming. Empowerment programs have also been initiated for female leaders. The finalization of the WHO AFRO gender policy and the development of its sexual harassment policy will further steer gender mainstreaming toward achieving gender equality and inclusion in the health sector.