As Development Finance Shrinks, Who Will Close Africa’s Health Access Gap?
The financing model for global health is changing.
Development finance is contracting. Philanthropy is increasingly consolidating around pooled funds and large commitments. Funding is often channeled through governments, bilateral and multilateral mechanisms, and large international organizations.
For smaller and growing health programs, that can mean fewer routes to funding and a less diverse financing landscape.
At the same time, a significant part of healthcare access across Africa already sits within a part of the system that receives far less attention in major development conversations: the local private health sector.
Local providers, manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies, technology companies, and other health businesses are already part of how people access care. Yet discussions about expanding health access can treat them as peripheral to the system rather than potential partners in strengthening it.
As traditional development funding becomes harder to secure, that assumption deserves another look.
This session will explore where Africa’s local private health sector could play a greater role in expanding sustainable access to healthcare, and what would need to change to make that possible. Where are there viable business models that can grow without relying indefinitely on grants? What makes public-private partnerships work? How can technology and expertise be transferred in ways that build local capability? And what would it actually take to move the growing ambition around local manufacturing from rhetoric toward a workable roadmap?
The conversation will also examine the limits. The private sector is highly fragmented, commercial viability does not automatically produce equitable access, and not every health need can or should be solved through a business model.
The question is where this part of the health system can contribute more, and what governments, funders, development partners, and companies would need to do differently to unlock that potential.
What to expect
A working session deliberately mixing people who already understand Africa’s private health sector with people who do not typically encounter it in their work.
Participants will explore practical opportunities across medicines access, health financing, public-private partnerships, digital health, technology transfer, and local manufacturing. The aim is to identify where existing approaches are already working, where fragmentation or financing prevents them from growing, and where collaboration across sectors could unlock opportunities relatively quickly.
Rather than positioning the private sector as a replacement for public health systems or development finance, the conversation will ask how it can become a more intentional partner within a wider health ecosystem.
Who this is for
This session is for African health businesses and entrepreneurs, governments, development partners, philanthropies, multinational companies, NGOs, investors, and others working on medicines access, health financing, public-private partnerships, digital health, technology transfer, and local manufacturing.
What you will get out of it
A clearer picture of the role Africa’s local private sector already plays in healthcare access
Practical opportunities for public, philanthropic, development, and commercial actors to work with local health businesses
Perspectives on sustainable business models, public-private partnerships, technology transfer, digital health, and local manufacturing
A candid look at what the private sector can contribute and where its limits lie
Potential connections and next steps for integrating local private-sector solutions into wider health strategies
Hosted by
Business for Health Solutions (BHS)