The challenges to better health services in Africa are well known: Africa lags behind all regions of the world, including other developing regions, on all indicators of better health. A recent report from the World Health Organisation for instance shows that while Africa has 20% of the world’s sick people, it has only 4% of its healthcare workers – many of them vulnerable to the high mortality rate associated with malaria and notably the AIDS epidemic. The state of investment in healthcare infrastructure is also grossly inadequate as is the efficiency of healthcare delivery. But does this need to be so? What factors are responsible for this unacceptable state of affairs?

 

Contributors to the volume examine the evolution of healthcare services in Africa, the ongoing national, regional and continental efforts to improve the delivery of healthcare in the continent, and the direct and indirect obstacles militating against the maturation of the services and their efficient delivery. The contributors – all distinguished experts in the field, who hold either challenging responsibilities in health in Africa or have worked in multiple components of the healthcare delivery system in the continent - also provide powerful personal insights and lessons learned in their current or previous work in the health sector in Africa.  Some of the themes covered include clinical care and centers of excellence,  healthcare finance and resource mobilization, primary health care systems and community health; preventive care and risk reduction in health; the role of reference laboratories; clinical research and partnerships, the role of epidemiology, statistics, monitoring and evaluation in health services; the role of the African Diaspora, and the role of politics in the organization of healthcare  and the training of medical and other health professionals.

 

From their analyses and experience the authors articulate proven strategies and solutions based on consensus expert opinions on how to improve the quality of health services and health outcomes in the continent.

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Dr. Chinua Akukwe is an adjunct professor of public health and also an adjunct professor of preventive and community health at the George Washington University School of Public Health, Washington, DC. He is the Chairman of the Technical Advisory Board of the Africa Center for Health and Human Security at the George Washington University Medical Center, Washington, DC. He is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the new Center for Disease Epidemiology and Economics Research in Abuja, Nigeria.

 

A Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, London,  Dr Akukwe was the editor  of the special edition of the journal, African Renaissance (July/August 2006), which examined healthcare delivery issues, challenges and opportunities in Africa. He is a former member of the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Public Health. A prolific writer, his publications include the books:

Don't Let them Die: HIV/AIDS, TB, Malaria and the Healthcare Crisis in Africa (2006) and Beyond the Rhetoric: Essays on Africa's Development Challenges (2006).