Date: 15 December 2023
Conclusion of the Future of Global Health Initiatives process with the launch of the Lusaka Agenda
The FGHI process has now reached its conclusion with the launch of the Lusaka Agenda: Conclusions of the Future of Global Health Initiatives Process, launched on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) day 12 December 2023.
The 14-month FGHI process brought together a group of global, regional, and national stakeholders – from governments and international and domestic-financing partners to civil society, health organisations, and academics – in a time-bound, informal process of research and consultation. Focusing on GHIs as an entry point and catalyst for accelerating change in the broader global health financing ecosystem, the FGHI process has sought to identify and support opportunities for these initiatives to maximise health impacts, as part of country-led trajectories toward universal health coverage UHC.
The Lusaka Agenda builds from existing efforts and captured consensus around five key shifts for the long-term evolution of GHIs and the wider health ecosystem. It also highlights several near-term priorities to catalyse action towards the five shifts.
The Lusaka Agenda provides a foundation for coordinated action to support these shifts, and a path towards a joint long-term vision of domestically financed health systems and UHC that leaves no one behind. The realisation of the shifts requires united and collective effort across stakeholder groups, underpinned by mutual accountability.
The Lusaka Agenda has now been shared with the leadership of GHIs, for them to put the conclusions into practice and to work together to catalyse action towards the five shifts outlined.
We would like to thank the many stakeholders who took part in this process, including our Steering Group, Research and Learning Task Team, and Extended Commitments Task Team members, as well as participants in several webinars and multi-stakeholder dialogues, including in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (14 June), Wilton Park, UK (4-6 October) and Lusaka, Zambia (26 November).
The Lusaka Agenda can be read in full here.
Supporting statements can be viewed and read here (statements invited for publication until 18 December)
UHC Day webinar on the future of global health financing, hosted by the Center for Global Development
On 13 December 2023, 400 people joined a virtual Center for Global Development (CGD)-hosted panel event, moderated by Javier Guzman, Director of the Global Health Policy Program and Senior Policy Fellow, CGD, on the future of global health financing. The panel featured José Manuel Barroso, Chair of the Board, Gavi the Vaccine Alliance; Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, Director-General, Ghana Health Service, Ministry of Health, Ghana; Bjørg Sandkjær, State Secretary for International Development, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway; and Nidda Yusuf, Senior Health Financing Adviser/Lead, Save the Children. Dr Mercy Mwangangi, Co-Chair of the FGHI process, spoke about the Lusaka Agenda.
A recording of the event can be found here.
What next?
GHI boards will now consider how to put the next steps into practice and to work together to catalyse action towards the five key shifts. From January 2024, an informal, interim working group will work together over four months to (i) help anchor the Lusaka Agenda on the agendas of the GHI boards and the African Union, and begin to drive its implementation; and (ii) engage with stakeholders, including GHIs, CSOs and a broader group of donor and implementing countries, to consider how to operationalize the key shifts also in the broader global health financing ecosystem. Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, Director-General, Ghana Health Service and Desta Lakew, Group Director of Partnerships and External Affairs, Amref Health Africa, will co-chair the interim working group, with a third Co-Chair to be named.
Recent events
Conference on Public Health in Africa 2023, Lusaka, Zambia
The FGHI Co-Chairs hosted two meetings in the margins of the 3rd Conference on Public Health in Africa (CPHIA) in which participants expressed strong support for the FGHI process and its content and provided feedback on the draft Lusaka Agenda that the Co-Chairs took on board as they finalized the FGHI conclusions document.
The first event, a 26 November FGHI roundtable, was co-chaired by Dr John-Arne Røttingen, FGHI Co-Chair, and Desta Lakew, FGHI Steering Group member. They were delighted to have Dr Lia Tadesse, Minister of Health of Ethiopia, alongside participants from ministries of heath, civil society organizations and global and regional health organizations and initiatives provide feedback on the draft Lusaka Agenda. The consultation highlighted the leadership of African public health policy makers and advocates in driving alignment and coherence of external funding and technical assistance to national priorities.
The second, official CPHIA side event on 27 November, was co-hosted by Africa CDC and Amref Health Africa and convened two panel discussions with public health leaders committed to catalyzing collective action to shape a global health financing ecosystem that is fit for purpose through to 2030 and beyond. Panelists discussed their vision of aligning external financing to one country plan, budget and M&E framework, how regional and global mechanisms and institutions are improving the way they work together to increase the efficiency of external support to countries and its alignment to country priorities, and how African representation on the boards of global health initiatives can be strengthened to give the continent more of a voice in decision-making.
FGHI 2023 roadmap
FGHI at recent events
About the Future of Global Health Initiatives process
The Future of Global Health Initiatives (FGHI) was a time-bound, multi-stakeholder process involving representatives from across funders, governments, global health organisations, civil society and the research and learning community. Focusing on GHIs as an entry point and catalyst for accelerating change in the broader global health financing ecosystem, the FGHI process has sought to identify and support opportunities for these initiatives to maximise health impacts, as part of country-led trajectories toward universal health coverage UHC. The process has achieved what it set out to do. The Lusaka Agenda, published on 12 December 2023, UHC Day, is the culmination of the process and puts forward specific and actionable conclusions.
More information
Want to know more? For more information please contact Secretariat@futureofghis.org.