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Paper short abstract:

The study estimates financing gaps for achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in Africa and examines various sustainable financing schemes likely to close the UHC gap. Thus, it provides evidence-based policy discussion on financing UHC (SDG 3.8.1) gaps in African countries.

Paper long abstract:

Health coverage is one of the four basic guarantees of social protection floors and monitored under SDG 3.8.1. It corresponds to the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Index and captures coverage of essential health services. Most developed and few emerging countries have already achieved the minimum UHC Index target of 80 between 2015 and 2021. Out of the few emerging/developing countries that achieved the target, none included African countries. WHO global service coverage database 2024 shows persistent healthcare protection coverage gaps across all African countries since 2000, and the estimated gap from 2021 is 33. Somalia, Chad, and Central African Republic have a huge gap of 53, 51, and 48, respectively. Countries with the least gaps ranging from 5 to 10 include Seychelles (5), Algeria (6), Cabo Verde (9), South Africa (9), and Egypt (10). Clearly, time is running out for most African countries to achieve SDG 3.8 targets by 2030. Therefore, there is the need for radical but reliable and sustainable financing strategies likely to close the healthcare coverage gaps. The study seeks to provide evidence-based policy discussion on financing UHC gaps by estimating the financing gap for achieving healthcare protection coverage, and to examine various sustainable financing schemes likely to close the gap without financial hardship on households (SDG3.8.2). The study employs trend analysis of expenditure and financing sources to quantify the extent of the healthcare financing gap from 2000 to 2021. Data is obtained from WHO Global Health, IMF Government Finance Statistics, and IMF World Economic Outlook databases.