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The Public Health Catastrophe
THE PUBLIC HEALTH CATASTROPHE IN NUMBERS
533 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in Sub-Saharan Africa — 2× the global average · 94% share of global malaria cases and deaths · Less than 1% of global health expenditure for 18% of the world's people · 282M+ Africans undernourished or food insecure as of July 2025.
Africa has 18% of the world's population, 11% of the global health workforce, less than 1% of global health expenditure, and 25% of the global disease burden. It is the most diseased, least treated, most underfunded continent on Earth — by a margin that is not close and not accidental. Twenty-three years after African heads of state pledged in Abuja to spend 15% of national budgets on health, fewer than five countries have ever hit that target, and several have cut their health budgets since making the pledge.