With the launch of the new Sustainable Development Goals, health and development experts around the world are reflecting on what it will take to accomplish them. As a global community, this is a unique opportunity to think carefully about what works and what doesn’t, and to use the new goals to redouble our efforts to support programmes, solutions, and systems that work.

To fuel progress in global development, we need catalysts that cut across multiple challenges and support multiple development interests. There is a widespread understanding among decision-makers in low- and middle-income countries that high-performing primary health-care systems play that catalytic role. These systems are central to reaching global and country-specific goals, achieving universal health coverage, and meeting the majority of individual and community health needs before they become emergencies. A healthy population in turn sets the stage for gains in education, economies, and peace and security.

Providing sexual and reproductive health services in the context of primary health care is a long-established principle and practice. The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action called for ensuring access to reproductive health through primary health care. Similarly, a 2008 UNFPA publication stated that achieving progress towards sexual and reproductive health and rights depends on a strong and functional health system in every country, especially at the primary and first referral levels.

With respect to HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria, the 2006 Abuja Call for Accelerated Action Towards Univeral Access called for the promotion and integration of access to prevention, treatment, care, and support in primary health-care services. High-performing primary health-care systems enable countries to maximise the impact of core investments in programmes to defeat these and other infectious and non-communicable diseases. For example, primary health-care systems can be the basis for the scale-up of essential HIV and AIDS services in hard-to-reach areas and among underserved populations.

Unfortunately, despite broad global agreement on the value of robust primary health care, there is not a simple recipe to achieve it. Domestic financing and country ownership are critical elements, and it is time for countries to set priorities and budgets that explicitly aim to strengthen primary health-care systems, complementing the efforts of donors. Civil society also has a key role to play, not only holding decision-makers accountable but also working with them to develop strong systems that can be reached by all.

To enact policies and budgets that lead to measurable primary health-care improvements, however, decision-makers need better information about the components of high-performing primary health-care systems, particularly their poorly understood service delivery elements – such as the quality of care, and patients’ ability to access the system, and the degree of coordination among various care providers. A new partnership called the Primary Health Care Performance Initiative (PHCPI) seeks to address this gap in information, giving decision-makers the tools to adopt policies and practices based on evidence.

We are excited about PHCPI because it presents an opportunity for collaboration among diverse communities working to address other issues of global health and development. This is a chance to look ahead to where improvements to primary health-care systems can take us all in the future. We can rise above disputes over which health issues deserve the most attention, or what set of indicators gives us the best picture of a system’s health. We can harness data to make policy decisions about health care that are truly responsive to communities’ needs. We can unite around the opportunity to dramatically improve the health of millions of people by focusing on primary health care, the frontline of health in people’s communities.

Advances in science in the last two decades have led to tremendous progress against HIV. Breakthroughs in HIV treatment and prevention research have allowed the HIV community to halt and begin to reverse spread of the HIV epidemic. Biomedical approaches such as rapid and user-friendly HIV tests and affordable and effective antiretroviral treatment for people living with HIV have changed the landscape of the HIV response. Other impactful prevention tools have included voluntary medical male circumcision, male and female condoms, and oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), among others.

All the same, the fight against HIV is far from won. HIV prevention efforts across the world have all but stagnated. According to UNAIDS, 2.1 million people became newly infected with HIV around the world in 2015. To end HIV as an epidemic by 2030, the world will need to do more, deploying traditional tools while developing new tools to accelerate the fight against the disease.

Research and development around new tools to help bolster HIV response is fundamental. It is why a new initiative called the Coalition to Accelerate and Support Prevention Research (CASPR) is exciting. Funded by USAID, and supported by PEPFAR, the coalition seeks to strengthen Africa-focused and led HIV biomedical prevention research, implementation and advocacy. The fact that the coalition is Africa focused is also fundamental because Africa has been left behind in many research and development issues.

The CASPR network, led by AVAC, brings together several Africa-based partners—including the Research institute of the University of the Witwatersrand (WRHI), WACI Health, HIV/AIDS Vaccine Ethics Group (HAVEG), the New HIV Vaccine and Microbicide Advocacy Society (NHVMAS) and the Advocacy for Prevention of HIV and AIDS (APHA)– to accelerate HIV prevention research in Africa. These groups along with partners with longstanding engagement in the region, including IAVI, FHI 360, Avenir Health, and Internews, will work collaboratively to build a network  dedicated to advancing advocacy, policy, regulatory, community engagement and communications efforts that help accelerate biomedical HIV prevention research.

This initiative will support Africa to make its contribution in HIV prevention research, in areas such  vaccine development. This is much needed. Africa can play its role, not only advocating for great use of the tools available to defeating HIV but also in contributing to creation of new tools to end the disease as an epidemic.

CASPR seeks to support an Africa-centered network dedicated to advancing biomedical HIV prevention research through a robust network of strategic partnerships and an interconnected array of activities such as linking prevention research advocacy to campaigns for increased domestic financing for health; establishing an African HIV Media Network; expanding the Good Participatory Practice framework; and increasing coordination between research partners, governments and civil society.

WACI Health reflects on the major developments in global health in 2016.

1. In May 2016, WHO recommended a shorter treatment for multi-drug resistant TB, which not only reduces the length of treatment by half for many patients but also cuts costs by at least 50 percent.  Full story

2. In September, the World Health Organization certified Sri Lanka as a malaria-free nation. Full story

3. In September, the Global Fund raised close to US$13 billion to accelerate the response to HIV, TB and malaria as well as build resilient and sustainable systems for health. Full story

4. In October, the world launched the first child-friendly TB medicines. The new formulations will increase children’s adherence to the drugs as they are easier for children to take. Full story

5. In November, trials for a new HIV vaccine started in South Africa. Full story

6. In December, a new Ebola vaccine was found to give 100 percent protection against the disease. Full story

In our advocacy work over the last year, our partnership has accumulated a list of accomplishments and as a result propelled our vision of advocating for improved health for all in Africa. Below is a select few of those 2016 highlights.

High-Level Meeting in New York: CISPHA co-hosted a pan-African civil society meeting ahead of the United Nations High Level Meeting on HIV, playing a significant role in urging partners to commit to improved financing of the Aids response by ensuring that the Global Fund is funded strongly. The outcome document from the meeting became a critical reference text for both the Africa Union member states and donor governments. The deliberations are captured in this blog by GFAN Africa.

Kenya Contribution to Global Fund: Together with KANCO, WACI Health and the Kenyan civil society organizations we worked to engage Kenya Ministry of Health officials, including Cabinet Secretary for Health Dr. Cleopa Mailu and Acting Director of Medical Services Dr. Jackson Kioko. These leaders committed to advocate for an increased Kenyan pledge to the Global Fund replenishment. The objective came to fruition with a pledge of US$ 5 million by Kenya during the pledging conference in Montreal, Canada 16-17, September 2016.

Vaccines: In commemoration of the 2016 World AIDS Vaccine Day, WACI Health co-convened civil society representatives from the eastern and southern Africa region to renew, strength and accelerate civil society action on investments and innovation in AIDS Vaccine Research and Development, among other New Prevention Technologies. This meeting came up with a call to action, boldly calling upon African governments to accelerate HIV R&D investments

A great thing happened in Africa civil society circles in 2009 with the formation of CISPHA – the Civil Society Platform for Health in Africa. In seven short years, the group has covered a lot of ground, uniting many civil society organizations working in global health in Africa, demanding a space at the table, and articulating issues that nudge governments and other authorities to do more for the health of the people of the continent.

With remarkable experience forged in the trenches of global health advocacy, CISPHA has spent the last year firmly focused on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) launched in New York in September 2015.

The framing of the SDGs was greatly successful in its eloquent capturing of the fact that all issues of development are interconnected.  While CISPHA has chosen to focus its work on SDG3 – ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages – it recognizes that to attain that goal there are many other fundamental factors covered in other SDGs that must come to play. Issues of poverty, education, gender equality, human rights, climate change, among others. As such, CISPHA seeks to build broader and richer partnerships for development.

In 2016, CISPHA focused much of its energy on GFAN Africa in supporting the replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria – a partnership that has saved more than 20 million lives in the last 15 years of its operations. CISPHA regards the Global Fund as one of the most successful partnerships for development.

In 2016, the Global Fund held its replenishment to raise US$ 13 billion to accelerate the fight against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria and to build resilient and sustainable systems for health. A strong Fifth Replenishment for the Global Fund’s was one of CISPHA’s top objectives in 2016. The network lobbied and advocated for more support for the fight against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, reminding governments of the impressive gains made against these diseases because of the work of the Global Fund partnership. It was time to accelerate that progress and end these diseases for good. CISPHA also mapped out reasons why the gains were fragile and why the world could not stop investing in the Global Fund.

It was exciting when we gathered in Montreal in September — in a meeting hosted by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada to see partners raise US$ 12.91 billion for the Global Fund. The amount raised — nearly meeting the US$ 13 billion goal — was the biggest commitment of funds to fight diseases in history. It was a remarkable feat especially in a time of many competing global priorities.

The African civil societies were especially gratified by the fact that for the first time African countries were front and center in galvanizing the world to invest more in the Global Fund. Beyond calling on the world to commit more resources to the Global Fund, African countries also made strong pledges themselves. Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, and Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa each made their contributions. The money raised will save 8 million lives, avert 300 million infections – most of them in Africa – and help build resilient and sustainable systems for health.

For CISPHA, which has committed itself to calling on Africa to invest more in the health of its people, this was a remarkable achievement. Nevertheless, we are not there yet. CISPHA now calls on African governments to commit more of their annual expenditures to health as demanded by Africa Scorecard on Domestic Financing for Health launched in July this year.

For now, CISPHA is thankful for the remarkable achievement in raising funds for the Global Fund, now expected to go beyond the US$ 13 billion. Above all, CISPHA is tremendously thankful for the strong showing of African countries in the Replenishment. For every, civil society group or partner that advocated to make this possible we thank you. We are looking forward to more such successes in 2017 and beyond.

In 2016 – after close to 20 years as World Aids Campaign International (WACI) – we rebranded, streamlining our mandate and renaming our organization WACI Health. As an Africa regional advocacy organization, WACI Health has taken a firm focus on ending life-threatening illnesses and improving health for all on the African continent. We aim to build broad collaborations that can galvanize sufficient political will to enhance and guarantee health equity, foster human rights and promote gender equality.

Our approach is three-pronged:

• Policy and advocacy
• Capacity strengthening for civil society, for stronger engagement in global health
• Civil society mobilization

Our footprints

In 1997, we began as World AIDS Campaign (WAC) with an aim to raise public awareness on the global Aids response, working amongst diverse civil society organizations. We led in the planning and observance of the International World Aids Day. Four years later, we became an independent non-governmental organisation based in the Netherlands.

In 2008, we undertook a strategic shift that led to the registration of World Aids Campaign International (WACI) in South Africa. Over the years, our scope of work has also increased from a HIV and Aids portfolio to an all-inclusive health advocacy package for Africa, with a broader, approach to inclusive health needs of people.

In 2016, we rebranded to WACI Health. Wearing this new hat, we have stayed true to our traditional role of responding to HIV and Aids even as we embrace a broader health development agenda.