African governments must prioritize health investment amid shrinking international aid and rising economic pressures, global health experts said at a recent Devex event on the sidelines of the 78th World Health Assembly.

“Health has been consistently deprioritized in national budgets, especially in poorer countries, and it's not clear why that happened,” said Kalipso Chalkidou, director of health financing and economics at the World Health Organization. But one possibility is that it was due to too much aid funding for health, so “governments felt that it would be inefficient to put more of their own money there.”

This moment, though, with the numerous shocks countries are facing, including the sudden U.S. aid freeze, presents challenges. Donald Kaberuka, former president of the African Development Bank, said it will require “thinking out of the box” and innovating.

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