It is both an honor and a privilege to stand before you today at the outset of the Africa Health Workforce Investment Forum. This gathering, under the esteemed auspices of the World Health Organization, marks a pivotal moment in our collective efforts to strengthen health systems across the African continent through strategic investments in our health workforce. Please let me thank WHO AFRO for organizing this important event.
Studies show that investments in the health sector yield substantial economic returns, estimating a nine to one return on investment. This is one of the pieces of evidence I'm using when I'm talking about changing the narrative in the Health area in Africa. Indeed, some of you Ministers who are here know that sometimes you have difficult conversation with Ministers of Finance because they still believe that Health sector is a liability.
The first challenge is why we are here today. While we have made huge progress in Africa, this gathering will send a strong message about our firm commitment to address the health workforce by becoming innovative. To make our action more concrete, you saw that in March 2024, Africa CDC signed a MoU with UNICEF that is transferring to our continental organization its capacity and capability on pooled procurement mechanism and supply chain management. In short, in the next 2-3 years, Africa CDC will take over and play the role that UNICEF Supply Division in Copenhagen is playing by procuring and suppling African countries with essential commodities with preference on products made in Africa.
At continental level, our countries have adopted the AU Agenda 2063"the Africa we want". To achieve this ambitious agenda, we have a milestone that is the Sustainable Development Goal in 2030 especially for us the SDG 3. Achieving SDG3 means we need to achieve Universal Health Coverage by 2030.
Today, this forum brings us together not just to discuss, but to act. Over the next few days, we will delve into a series of crucial topics like:Involvement of the private sector: