Nigeria: Nigeria and Mozambique Show How Health Systems Can Withstand Funding Cuts
[allAfrica] For decades, many health programmes across sub-Saharan Africa have relied on a familiar model: donors fund disease-specific projects, parallel delivery structures are built around them, and services expand or contract with the funding cycle.
Nigeria and Mozambique have demonstrated how health systems can withstand funding cuts by shifting focus to government ownership, integrated financing, and reduced duplication. In Nigeria, the Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative (NHSRII) has led to consolidating fragmented projects into a single government-led architecture and expanding domestic financing for primary healthcare.
A key success has been the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund, which contributes 1% of the consolidated revenue fund to strengthen primary healthcare. This approach was particularly effective in Sokoto State, where donor funding cuts to malaria programs were mitigated by a state-led reform. The reform integrated government ownership, real-time data visibility, and local accountability, resulting in improved stock-outs of commodities, better maternal delivery infrastructure, and increased use of modern family planning methods.
Government ownership of goals, such as local medicines and vaccine manufacturing, is crucial for resilience. While some initiatives for domestic manufacturing are still in the design stage, increased government leadership and collaboration among donors and partners is essential.
Written by urgent.news from AllAfrica Health's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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