World Bank Unveils Major Health Strategy for Western and Central Africa to Drive Jobs, Economic Growth

The framework is built around the principle of “health sovereignty,” emphasizing country-led healthcare development tailored to national priorities while strengthening regional cooperation and institutional resilience.

Health and finance ministers from across Western and Central Africa have joined international development partners, private sector leaders, and civil society organizations in launching a major new regional health strategy aimed at transforming healthcare systems, accelerating economic growth, and expanding access to affordable quality care for millions of people.

The high-level meeting, held in Accra on May 4, brought together senior representatives from a dozen African nations alongside international institutions including the World Bank Group, UNICEF, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office, and the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

At the centre of the summit was the launch of the World Bank Group's new regional health strategy, Fit to Prosper: Investing in Health for Jobs and Development in Western and Central Africa, a six-year framework designed to strengthen healthcare systems while positioning health investment as a core driver of economic development and job creation.

The strategy represents one of the World Bank's most ambitious health and development initiatives for the African continent in recent years and reflects growing global recognition that healthcare systems are deeply connected to economic resilience, workforce productivity, and long-term prosperity.

The framework is built around the principle of "health sovereignty," emphasizing country-led healthcare development tailored to national priorities while strengthening regional cooperation and institutional resilience.

The World Bank says the strategy is designed not only to improve health outcomes, but also to support employment, private sector expansion, industrial development, and poverty reduction across some of the world's fastest-growing and youngest populations.

"For us in Ghana, this strategy aligns closely with our national vision: achieving universal health coverage, strengthening our health systems, and ensuring that every citizen — regardless of income or location — can access quality care," said Julius Debrah, Chief of Staff at the Presidency of Ghana.

"By investing in health, we are investing in jobs, in stability, and in the future of Western and Central Africa."

The Fit to Prosper strategy is structured around three major pillars:

• Frontlines First — strengthening healthcare delivery systems with a strong focus on primary healthcare

• Fixing Finance — improving sustainable health financing and resource mobilization

• Future Fit — building more resilient healthcare systems capable of responding to future crises and demographic pressures

The strategy is closely aligned with the World Bank Group's broader objective of helping countries deliver quality, affordable healthcare services to 200 million people in Africa by 2030, contributing to the institution's global target of reaching 1.5 billion people worldwide.

A key component of the initiative is the push for Universal Health Coverage (UHC), ensuring that citizens can access essential healthcare services without facing financial hardship.

Health leaders at the summit stressed that inadequate healthcare access remains one of the largest barriers to economic development across the region, where millions of families continue to face catastrophic healthcare costs, preventable diseases, maternal mortality, child malnutrition, and fragile healthcare infrastructure.

"Our goal is to ensure that quality affordable maternal and child health services are available to all," said Mamta Murthi, World Bank Group Vice President for People.

"So that every pregnant woman can deliver her baby safely, every child can grow up healthy, well-nourished, and protected from preventable childhood diseases, and no family is pushed into poverty to access the care they need."

The strategy places significant emphasis on maternal and child healthcare, recognising that early-life health outcomes have profound long-term implications for education, productivity, employment, and national economic performance.

"Breaking the cycle of poverty and ill health requires investing now," Murthi said.

"It means recognizing that a child's health in the first 1,000 days of life goes a long way towards shaping their future — their ability to learn, to work, to be productive, and to contribute to a thriving economy."

The initiative also seeks to strengthen domestic pharmaceutical production and regional medical supply chains through the World Bank's Africa Initiative for Medical Access and Manufacturing (AIM2030), which aims to expand local production of medicines, vaccines, and health commodities across Africa.

Officials say stronger local manufacturing capacity is essential for improving health security after the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the continent's vulnerability to global supply chain disruptions and external dependence for medical products.

Another major focus of the strategy is improving coordination between governments, development agencies, and financing institutions through the establishment of National Health Compacts.

These country-led agreements are designed to align health priorities, budgets, and policy reforms under unified national healthcare roadmaps.

The compacts aim to strengthen cooperation between ministries of health and finance while ensuring development partners support a single coordinated strategy rather than fragmented programmes.

In a joint statement issued at the conclusion of the meeting, ministers and heads of delegation stressed that investing in health should now be viewed not only as a social obligation but as a core economic strategy.

"Healthy populations are more productive, more resilient to shocks, and better equipped to drive job creation and economic growth," the statement noted.

Participants also acknowledged that governments alone cannot achieve universal healthcare goals and emphasized the importance of private sector involvement in healthcare innovation, service delivery, medical manufacturing, and investment.

The strategy comes as Western and Central Africa face rising population growth, urbanization pressures, climate-related health risks, infectious disease threats, and growing demand for healthcare infrastructure and skilled medical workers.

Development experts say the success of the initiative could play a major role in determining whether the region can convert demographic growth into long-term economic opportunity and sustainable development.