Half the global population lacks access to essential health services. By extending the reach of the health system, community health programs are critical to advancing health equity. Still, despite strong evidence for investments in community health systems in Sub-Saharan African, a $4 billion+ funding gap persists. Furthermore, current donor funding supports mostly vertical, disease-specific Community Health Worker (CHW) programs that are costlier and less efficient than horizontal, integrated programs. National governments that seek to streamline and scale CHW programs face barriers including building political prioritization, developing policy, mapping resources, and establishing financing strategies. As a result, Ministry of Health teams often struggle to mobilize resources and scale strong, sustainable health systems, with community health workers at their core.
Financing Alliance for Health (FAH) supports Ministries of Health to develop the policies, strategies, and investment cases for community health, while also engaging with Ministries of Finance to secure budget lines for these programs. FAH aligns stakeholders toward a common vision, one where country investments catalyze additional funding from both public and private sector partners. To complement the in-country work with Ministries of Health and Finance, FAH advocates for the prioritization of community health and more effective funding mechanisms for integrated community health services at global levels.
FAH is working towards a new reality where domestic and international funders prioritize community health as a key contributor to achieving Universal Health Coverage and recognize community health as a critical investment in society rather than an individual cost to its members. FAH envisions a world where all people have access to health care, regardless of where they live, and we believe that community health is key to achieving this reality.
National governments that seek to streamline and scale CHW programs face barriers including building political prioritization, developing policy, mapping resources, and establishing financing strategies.
FAH supports Ministries of Health to develop the policies, strategies, and investment cases for community health, while also engaging with Ministries of Finance to secure budget lines for these programs.
Angela Gichaga is a public and social sector enthusiast with experience working across civil service, management consulting, NGOs and academia.
To date, FAH has contributed to securing more than $200 million in financing for at-scale community health systems.
Country governments reclaim stewardship of their own health systems, enabling integrated, scaled and operationally, politically and financially sustainable community health programs to provide equitable access to health care across Sub-Saharan Africa.
FAH’s next strategic focus is deepening its footprint in Africa and building on its body of in-country work to catalyze a new level of investment in community health systems across the continent.
Dr. Angela Gichaga, a clinician, health economist, and former management consultant with McKinsey & Company, joined the Financing Alliance as Chief Executive Officer, effective June 2017. Dr. Gichaga is responsible for strategic development and fundraising, initiative development, stakeholder engagement, recruiting, and team development and management.
She is a public and social sector enthusiast with experience working across civil service, management consulting, NGOs, and academia, to improve the quality of peoples’ lives through gender advocacy, leadership training, coaching, mentorship, health and education.
Dr. Gichaga completed her undergraduate degree in Medicine, Masters in Health Economics, and Policy and Fellowship in Public Sector Management and has served as a frontline clinician, policy maker, and consultant. She served the MOH Kenya as a District Medical Officer of Health (DMOH) and a hospital in charge (MEDSUP) in both Meru and Garbatulla, for ~150 multi-disciplinary team members through coordinating strategic planning, resource mobilization, recruitment, monitoring and capacity building through on job training/mentorship. She then joined the MOH HQ, where she co-developed national strategies and prepared reports on the country’s health achievements.
She was humbled to receive the Australian Leadership Awards for Africa (2012) and the President Obama’s Mandela Washington Fellowship (2014) in recognition of her exemplary leadership within the civil service and operational track record of excellence in achieving results.
Most recently, Dr. Gichaga worked at McKinsey & Company’s Africa Delivery Hub (ADH) working across multiple sectors, especially on socio-economic and development issues in Africa. She was named one of Fortune's World’s Greatest Leaders in 2018 and an Archbishop Tutu Fellow in 2019.
Don Gips, CEO of the Skoll Foundation joined Angela Gichaga, CEO of Financing Alliance for Health; Edith Elliott Co-CEO of Noora Health; and Aparna Hegde, Chair of Armman on a…
