Civil Society Platform for Health in Africa
From commitments to health in all policies
WACI Health advocates for African governments to fund and deliver the health commitments they make. Through regional coordination and advocacy, it connects communities and civil society in Africa with each other and with the African Union Commission, Africa CDC and other continental institutions. It stewards collective action for continental decisions on health and their journey to national plans and budgets.
The African Civil Society Platform for Health (CiSPHA) is a pan-African network of civil society organisations and advocates working on health. WACI Health founded and hosts CiSPHA as an avenue for the voices and perspectives of diverse communities and civil society to reach the African Union processes where these commitments are made and reviewed.
African governments have committed to financing health. In the 2001 Abuja Declaration, heads of state pledged to spend at least 15% of national budgets on health. The 2019 Africa Leadership Meeting (ALM) on Investing in Health went further. Member States reaffirmed their commitment to raise more domestic resources for health and agreed that sustainable, diversified health financing is a shared responsibility. These pledges are the yardstick that civil society can use to assess national health budgets, hold leaders accountable, and advocate for more and better health spending.
CiSPHA was launched in Nairobi, Kenya in June 2009 by 60 civil society organisations as a regional platform on universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. They included HIV and TB organisations, networks of people living with HIV and of key populations, and faith-based and human rights groups. In 2012, the platform’s remit moved from HIV to health broadly with domestic resource mobilisation for health remaining a central aim. It now has over 700 members from about 40 countries.
Purpose
What We Do
WACI Health runs the CiSPHA secretariat and is its link to continental institutions, including the African Union Commission, Africa CDC, AUDA-NEPAD, the African Medicines Agency and the UN Economic Commission for Africa. CiSPHA holds regional webinars and consultations on health negotiations at the African Union and globally, coordinating African civil society inputs and policy perspectives into the dialogues.
The network also supports civil society organisations to find formal routes into the African Union. Continental institutions also consult civil society through the platform. Africa CDC and the African Union Commission have gathered African civil society input through CiSPHA, including on the monitoring and accountability framework for the Lusaka Agenda. WACI Health also sat on the ALM’s advocacy and communications sub-committee.
The ALM declaration asked the African Union Commission to develop an accountability framework to monitor its commitments and to report regularly to African heads of state. CiSPHA calls for civil society budget monitoring to be built into that framework, so that people who rely on public health services can check what their governments spend against what they promised. Alongside this, the network connects advocates with data, tools and messages, so they can compare health budgets with regional and global commitments.
This is closely linked to the work of GFAN Africa on increased domestic financing for health, to the WACI Health’s engagement with international financing institutions on debt servicing and its toll on health budgets, and to HEAR CSO on the reform of the global health architecture.
Reports, briefs and statements
CiSPHA
Technical Briefing and Consultation of CSOs on the Lusaka Agenda Monitoring and Accountability Framework and Scorecard
A CiSPHA publication from the WACI Health knowledge library, published in March 2025.
Statements
Declaration on the Africa Leadership Meeting – Investing in Health: Addis Ababa Commitments towards Shared Responsibility and Global Solidarity for Increased Health Financing
The African Union heads of state declaration from the 2019 Africa Leadership Meeting, recommitting to increased domestic investment in health.
Statements
Call to Action to the African Union: Secure Africa’s Health Sovereignty
CiSPHA
State-of-Universal-Health-Coverage English
A CiSPHA publication from the WACI Health knowledge library, published in December 2025.
CiSPHA
African Civil Society Call to Action on Health Financing at the 38th African Union Summit
A CiSPHA publication from the WACI Health knowledge library, published in February 2025.
CiSPHA
CiSPHA Regional Webinar Report – AU Engagement with CSOs & Update on Global Health Negotiation Processes
A CiSPHA publication from the WACI Health knowledge library, published in July 2024.
CiSPHA
CiSPHA Regional Webinar Report – Update on IDA 21 Replenishment
A CiSPHA publication from the WACI Health knowledge library, published in July 2024.
CiSPHA
The Successful Replenishment of Gavi is a Huge Win for Global Health
A CiSPHA publication from the WACI Health knowledge library, published in October 2022.
Add your voice to Civil Society Platform for Health in Africa
Join CiSPHA to receive updates on health negotiations at the African Union and globally, and to take part in its consultations and webinars. Membership is open to civil society organisations and advocates working on health in Africa.