“We do about $250m [£197m] of work a year […] about $50m of that is actually US government partnerships,” he said, in areas including maternal and child health, HIV work and laboratory and health system strengthening.
Gitahi, from Kenya, said global health and foreign aid spending had historically focused on diseases that could affect the donors themselves.
They will also need to work on the prevention of ill health, Gitahi said, suggesting they “copy and paste” regulations from western countries that ban things such as the advertising of foods high in sugar, salt or fat to children.
“Africa has a big risk of collapse of health systems in the next few years because of NCDs […] 50% of all admissions in a typical African hospital are NCDs, yet 80% of NCD care is out of pocket.
Health services in Africa are at risk of “collapse in the next few years” due to soaring chronic diseases, a senior public health leader has warned.
