For decades, global health procurement has mostly relied on centralised multilateral institutions pooling donor funding to purchase and distribute medicines across low and middle-income countries.
While this model of procurement has delivered many successes, it has simultaneously perpetuated inefficiencies, including misaligned priorities, inflexible procurement processes, and an unsustainable reliance on external funding.
The recent dramatic pullback in funding from the USAid, for instance, saw a shipment of antiretroviral medicine worth $34 million, that was meant for the 1.4 million people living with HIV in Kenya, left stranded in warehouses.
Similarly, across multiple other African countries, the withdrawal of the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) has left millions without access to HIV testing, treatment, or even basic prevention.
For too long, medicine procurement has been driven by well-intentioned foreign budgets rather than by the needs of local communities.
When this external aid disappears, medicines vanish alongside it, leaving entire health systems vulnerable and struggling to cope.
Africa still bears 24 percent of the world’s disease burden yet houses only one percent of global health expenditure. Less than half of Africans – just 48 percent - can access the healthcare services they need.
These are not temporary challenges, but a systemic failure that demands urgent and radical change. The current funding crisis is not the origin of the problem; rather, it simply accelerates an issue that has persisted for decades.
Instead of clinging to a crumbling multilateral procurement model, the time has come for us to embrace digital platforms that match demand and supply in real-time, eliminating costly delays and unnecessary complexities.
By treating healthcare as a fundamental right and embracing data-driven, tech-enabled, anticipatory business models, we can ensure more medicines reach those who need them, when they need them.
Africa's healthcare market represents an opportunity exceeding $300 billion in the coming years. No patient should have to walk miles for medicine; no child should suffer from preventable inaccessibility.
Too many lives are lost; not because medicines are unavailable, but because they remain trapped in supply chains designed for aid rather than sustainable, long-term access.
Unprecedented progress will not come from clinging to a past that may never return. It will come if stakeholders take full ownership of the situation, take decisive action to innovate and embrace smart, tech-driven solutions.
