African Christian leaders attending a conference with faith-based health organizations in late November called for countries on the continent to do more to replace U.S. Agency for International Development funds that have been cut.
“We don’t have to wait until the taps are finally locked in Europe and America,” said Catholic Bishop Matthew Kukah of the Diocese of Sokoto, in Nigeria.
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Kukah spoke at the Nov. 27 closing press conference for the gathering. While African leaders appreciate foreign support, “it shouldn’t be an excuse for us not doing the things we need to do in Africa,” the bishop said.
“We need to begin to raise resources in our own countries to fill up the gap,” warned Francis Mkandawire, general secretary of the Evangelical Association of Malawi, who condemned the idea of “business as usual.”
“There’s fatigue out there, and it’s affecting us already,” Mkandawire said.
Devote 15 percent of budgets to health sector
The conference, “One Faith, One Voice: A Shared Commitment to Health and Wholeness in Africa,” was attended by some 50 Catholic and Protestant representatives from 10 African countries, including women and youth leaders and the heads of Christian health associations.
The leaders urged their governments to make good on the 2001 Abuja Declaration, an agreement in which the 55 African Union countries made it a goal to allocate 15 percent of their budgets to the health sector. A 2023 Human Rights Watch report showed only two of the signers were meeting the goal in 2021.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Fredrick Nzwili and originally published by Religion News Service.
