Elevating Country Voices
Hear from the frontlines of community health. Find stories and interviews of community health workers and community health program managers that will deepen understanding of their crucial function delivering lifesaving care to communities.
Who really Pays for Healthcare in Sierra Leone — and Why the National Health Financing Strategy Will Define the Next Decade
Sierra Leone is at a defining moment for its health system as the country continues it journey toward Universal Health Coverage (UHC). Ensuring effective and sustainable health financing has become more crucial today than ever before. Who pays for healthcare, and at what cost to households? For years, Sierra Leone has made important progress expanding access to essential health services. But beneath these gains lies a fragile financing reality: households continue to shoulder a heavy share of healthcare costs, donor funding remains critical but uncertain, and public financing is stretched by limited fiscal space. Without reform, this imbalance risks undermining the country’s ambition to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC).1 …
PRESS RELEASE Freetown, Sierra Leone | May 2026
ONE Campaign and Financing Alliance for Health Forge Strategic Partnership to Accelerate Sustainable Health Financing Reforms in Sierra Leone What the Partnership Will Deliver ONE Campaign and the Financing Alliance for Health (“FAH) have officially entered a strategic partnership to support the Ministry of Health through the provision of technical expertise and data and evidence-based analyses to support in the strengthening of local health financing systems and accelerating Sierra Leone’s journey toward sustainable Universal Health Coverage (UHC). This collaboration comes at a pivotal moment for Sierra Leone, as the Government advances major health financing reforms, including the establishment of the Sierra Leone Agency for Universal Health Coverage (SLAUHC), the expansion of the Free Health Care Initiative (FHCI), and the early…
PRESS RELEASE Geneva, May 20th 2026
The Financing Alliance for Health (FAH) and the International Institute for Primary Health Care – Ethiopia (IPHC‑E) have formally signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), marking the next phase of strategic collaboration to strengthen government‑led health financing and primary health care systems across Africa. This MoU formalises a long standing partnership focused on advancing government‑led health financing and primary health care reform across the continent, including joint work through the Health Systems Financing Accelerator Fellowship, where we’ve supported government leaders to turn policy ambition into funded, implementable reform. This collaboration brings together FAH’s Africa-based expertise in mobilizing sustainable financing for primary health and integrated primary care with IPHC-E’s evidence-based technical leadership in strengthening primary health care systems toward…
From Our Partners
Why counties must invest in community health services
Africa Frontline First is an initiative to fund community health programs in sub-Saharan Africa. While this initiative aims to deploy 200,000 professional CHWs by 2030, existing community health volunteers lack essential resources and financial incentives. In this piece, two CHVs from Kenya discuss why county governments must invest in community health services.
–> read more at Nation Africa
How health workers are leading Africa’s COVID-19 response
Community health workers have long responded to disease outbreaks while maintaining lifesaving services. In this September 2021 opinion piece, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia’s president from 2006 to 2018, and Dr. John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, share their thoughts on investments that should be prioritized to end the COVID-19 pandemic and realize health for all.
–> read more at Devex
COVID-19 highlights the need for community health
Over recent years, the world has faced two Ebola outbreaks, the constant threat of pandemic influenza, and now the global spread of novel coronavirus and the COVID-19 pandemic. In developing countries, these threats risk exacerbating existing high burdens of communicable diseases associated with millions of preventable deaths. Community health is essential for pandemic preparedness (prevention, surveillance, response) and remains essential for achieving the World Health Organization’s Sustainable Development Goals. The global scale and impact of the current pandemic demonstrates that this cuts across geographies, levels of income, and types of health systems.
–> read more at Think Global Health