About the Project
The Covid-19 pandemic has sparked intense discussions on the need to reform the system of global health financing, traditionally dominated and controlled by a few donor countries and private foundations. The Lusaka Agenda, for instance, proposes improvements to make global health initiatives more aligned with country needs. In African countries, there is advocacy for a radical shift, towards a "New Public Health Order," where African leaders take charge of health policy and funding, relegating external assistance to a secondary role. These proposals co-exist with calls for innovative approaches to international public finance to fund global public needs like preparing for the next pandemic.
PANFUND will study new global and regional funding arrangements that aim to address the shortcomings of established global health initiatives and promote comprehensive and sustainable approaches to future pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (pandemic PPR). These include the global Pandemic Fund, the Africa Public Health Foundation (APHF), and the Africa Epidemics Fund (AfEF).
Drawing on health policy analysis, medical anthropology, geography, and health economics, PANDFUND aims to understand how the new global and regional health financing initiatives meet governance, funding, and policy needs in Africa and contribute to pandemic PPR as a global public good. The project will examine how the new initiatives operate in practice with a focus on how they, a) promote global pandemic PPPR through strengthening domestic health systems and capacities; b) catalyze co-investments from domestic and private-sector sources; and c) raise new sources of finance. The project will provide an in-depth analysis of two east African countries, Ethiopia and Kenya.
PANDFUND brings together an interdisciplinary team of researchers from research institutions in Norway, Kenya, Ethiopia and India.
