Background note 2021 Africa Business Forum Investing in women’s health

Abstract

The findings from the feasibility study and situational analysis of the 10 pilot countries are significant and confirm that AfCFTA represents a continentally anchored investment blueprint of scale for the socioeconomic transformation of African States, including the improved health of women and children and productivity gains. As a result, Governments gain fiscal space through cost savings and consumers improved affordability of medicines. Key findings from the AfCFTA-anchored pharmaceutical initiative indicates improvements ranging from 21 to 76 percentage points in the accessibility of family planning products in the 10 pilot countries, which demonstrates a demand gap by women and concurrently presents a business opportunity for the private sector – for both local and regional suppliers – stemming from the aggregation of African countries into a single market by AfCFTA. Investing in women’s health has positive socioeconomic repercussions: results of the AfCFTA-anchored pharmaceutical initiative pilot project have demonstrated its significant positive effects on the availability, accessibility and affordability and efficacy of maternal and child pharmaceuticals and, in purely economic terms, on health investments, job creation, cost savings and productivity gains. Some obstacles still remain to the readiness of markets to take full advantage of AfCFTA, including the lack of harmonized quality standards and institutions.