Francis Omaswa laments that too many health professionals are too accepting of shortcomings in health systems around them

摘要

The last decade has shown a lot more promise for Africa's health as exemplified by a huge rise in global interest. More financial resources have been made available and the world is committed to pursuing a consensus to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Virtually all African countries have health sector plans; many use the more comprehensive sector-wide approaches. To support the implementation of these, there is a plethora of global initiatives such as GAVI,The Global Fund, UNAIDS, IHP+, AHA, to name a just few. Yet progress is painfully slow.Why is progress slow? There are several reasons and in my view the most important of these is the low level of African ownership of the processes to determine and implement solutions to Africa's heavy disease burden. The causes of low levels of ownership are multi-factorial and a key one is that African leaders and populations are demoralised. Many political and technocratic leaders lost the confidence and the 'can do' attitude that was prevalent just before and after independence.