Health and wellbeing
Africa experiences a triple burden of communicable, non-communicable and socio-behavioral diseases to which is added illiteracy, poverty and underdevelopment. The majority of citizen-consumers in our countries are not covered against the health risk. Faced with this deficiency in access to a public service such as health, the centrality of which in development policies is no longer to be demonstrated. In 2001, states in Abuja made a commitment to invest 15% of their national budgets in health. Very few did so by the deadline set in 2015. Some countries have put in place policies such as Universal Health Coverage; which we welcome.
The health crisis born from the Covid-19 pandemic has shown the fragility of the health systems of African countries that were not prepared to face such a pandemic. The continuity of the public health service was not effective during this pandemic. This pandemic has created a psychosis among the population of contracting COVID19. As a result, many patients with common pathologies were afraid to go to public health structures. The elderly and the sick who suffer from non-communicable diseases (cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases, etc.) were more vulnerable during this pandemic. Faced with the multiple challenges facing Africa, the AUC emphasizes the prevention against the risk factors of communicable and non-communicable diseases, the formulation of policies and strategies capable of offering a quality public health service to consumer citizens. Community mobilization, the problem of pharmaceutical products, citizen control in government action in the field of health, the effective implementation of universal health coverage policies, etc.