Africa CDC Unveils Bold Agenda to Secure Africa’s Health Sovereignty and Cut Dependence on External Systems.
By Raymond Enoch
In a world where external health aid to Africa is shrinking even as disease threats intensify, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has unveiled a sweeping new vision to secure the continent’s health future and reposition it at the centre of global health decision-making.
The Africa’s Health Security and Sovereignty (AHSS) Agenda, launched in Addis Ababa, is crafted to shield the continent from rising epidemics while sharply reducing its dependence on external manufacturing, procurement, supply chains, and financing. Framed as both a political and technical blueprint, the agenda seeks to move Africa from the margins of global health governance to the status of co-architect in shaping how the world prepares for and responds to health threats.
The timing is stark. According to Africa CDC, external health aid to the continent has dropped by nearly 70 percent since 2021, just as disease outbreaks increased by more than 40 percent between 2022 and 2024. Climate shocks, fragile supply chains, shifting geopolitical priorities and entrenched inequalities have converged to expose the vulnerability of African health systems. The AHSS Agenda builds on the foundations of the New Public Health Order (NPHO), endorsed by African Heads of State in 2022, which drove progress in institution building, workforce development and regional collaboration after COVID-19. But Africa CDC argues that the global health landscape has grown more complex and constrained, demanding a bolder and more integrated response.
At the heart of the new agenda is a recalibration of power in global health. Africa CDC is calling for a more equitable global health architecture in which African countries exercise decision-making authority commensurate with their needs, contributions and exposure to risk. The organising principle is clear: countries lead, regions coordinate and the global level supports. In this vision, a strong and capable Africa CDC is not merely an implementing agency but an indispensable co-architect of global health policies and systems, ensuring that global initiatives align with Africa’s own priorities rather than fragment them.
The agenda is anchored in five interconnected pillars that together form a comprehensive roadmap toward health sovereignty. The first pillar focuses on reforming the global health architecture so that Africa’s voice is not an afterthought, but a starting point. With Africa CDC positioned at the centre of regional coordination, the continent seeks to move beyond project-driven, externally dictated models and instead shape coherent, long-term strategies that can withstand geopolitical shifts and financial volatility.
The second pillar zeroes in on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response (PPPR), reflecting lessons learned from COVID-19 and numerous other outbreaks. Africa CDC is pushing to integrate the continent’s epidemiological surveillance systems, laboratory networks, National Public Health Institutes, Public Health Emergency Operations Centres and emergency response workforces, such as the Kofi Annan Health Leadership Programme and the Africa Volunteers Health Corps, into a unified architecture. The goal is early detection, rapid response and sustained readiness, supported by the African Epidemic Fund, which is expected to mobilise resources from multiple sources and make them rapidly available to Member States in need. For health practitioners and emergency responders, this pillar signals a move away from reactive, ad hoc crisis management towards a standing, continental shield against epidemics.
The third pillar addresses one of the most critical determinants of sustainability: money. Under the banner of “Africa Health Financing in a New Era”, Africa CDC is calling for increased domestic resource mobilisation, innovative financing tools such as health-related levies and sin taxes, and blended financing models that harness both public budgets and private capital. The agenda also stresses stronger public financial management systems and the accelerated implementation of the Lusaka Agenda to ensure that external resources actually support — rather than distort — the long-term priorities of African governments. For ministries of finance and health across the continent, this pillar reframes health security as a strategic investment in economic stability and resilience, not merely a recurrent cost line vulnerable to cuts.
Digital transformation sits at the core of the fourth pillar. Africa CDC is championing the creation of a region- and country-owned Digital Intelligence Ecosystem capable of enabling real-time data flows from the community level to national and continental platforms. In an era where information can determine whether an outbreak is contained or spirals out of control, the ability to collect, analyse and act on high-quality data is presented as a non-negotiable element of sovereignty. The agenda prioritises broadband connectivity for every health facility, including rural and primary health centres, to support surveillance, reporting and service delivery. Beyond the technical dimension, this pillar underscores Africa’s ambition to strengthen data sovereignty, ensuring that health data generated on the continent is governed in line with African interests and used first to inform African decisions, even as it contributes to global public health intelligence.
The fifth pillar speaks directly to one of the most visible vulnerabilities exposed during COVID-19: the continent’s dependence on external suppliers for vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics. Africa CDC’s renewed vision places local manufacturing at the centre of health sovereignty, supported by the African Pooled Procurement Mechanism in collaboration with the African Continental Free Trade Area and underpinned by the regulatory leadership of the African Medicines Agency. African leaders have articulated a clear target: by 2040, at least 60 percent of essential medical countermeasures — including vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics — should be produced on the continent. For policymakers and industry, this is not just a health objective but an industrial strategy, promising to catalyse pharmaceutical value chains, create skilled jobs and boost Africa’s bargaining power in global markets.
Africa’s Health Security and Sovereignty Agenda reinforces the message championed by the New Public Health Order but adds two previously missing components that resonate with global health audiences: a robust digital transformation agenda and a structured plan to reform the global health architecture. Unveiling the new agenda, H.E. Dr Jean Kaseya, Director-General of Africa CDC, framed it as a decisive break with the era of dependency. “Africa’s Health Security and Sovereignty Agenda is non-negotiable. It represents our collective commitment to move from dependency to ownership, and from vulnerability to resilience. A secure and self-reliant Africa is essential not only for our continent, but for the stability of global health systems. Health sovereignty does not mean isolation — it signals a new model of partnership in which African nations lead with clarity and confidence, and global partners support African-defined priorities,” he said.
The AHSS Agenda is also the product of deliberate and high-level political mobilisation. Dialogues hosted by President Paul Kagame in Addis Ababa in February 2025, a high-level meeting led by President John Mahama in Accra in August 2025, and the Africa CDC Committee of Heads of State and Government meeting chaired by President João Lourenço in New York in September 2025 have all fed into this renewed vision. These engagements tasked Africa CDC with articulating a strengthened agenda anchored in the five pillars and translating political commitments into practical, operational actions.
Yet Africa CDC is clear-eyed about the scale of the challenges ahead. The continent still contends with financing gaps, workforce shortages, production constraints, data fragmentation and governance weaknesses. Recognising these realities, the institution is advancing a unified continental approach that seeks not to mask the gaps, but to turn them into drivers for reform. Working closely with African Union Member States and partners, Africa CDC plans to establish a continental scorecard to track implementation of the AHSS Agenda, promote shared accountability and strengthen political advocacy. Such a tool is expected to help countries benchmark progress, identify bottlenecks and maintain momentum across all five pillars.
For global health practitioners, policy experts and development partners watching from within Africa and beyond, the message from Addis Ababa is unambiguous. Africa no longer accepts a role as a perpetual frontline of epidemics and a backbench observer in decisions that shape global health. With the Africa’s Health Security and Sovereignty Agenda, the continent is staking a claim to lead with its own vision, its own institutions and its own capacities — inviting partners to engage, but on terms that put African priorities and resilience at the centre of the global health conversation.
