00:00U.S. cuts to international aid pushed the African continent to take charge of its own services.
00:07That was the message from the heads of the World Health Summit at a three-day conference that wrapped up
00:12in Nairobi on Wednesday.
00:14The theme of the meeting was health sovereignty for Africa.
00:17We must certainly also acknowledge the need of external support for a certain period in some areas.
00:26But the main change of the mindset is that Africa can do it on its own and will do it
00:34on its own.
00:35And even in Europe, which is maybe a little bit better off in some areas,
00:41we have for decades in the European Union a mechanism how to support poorer regions from richer regions.
00:52The end of U.S. funding has been welcomed by many in Africa who say aid helped fuel corruption and
00:59lethargy in their governments.
01:01One of the biggest problems with the design of health systems in Africa
01:05is that they were designed with the idea that the people on the continent are poor
01:12and therefore they cannot afford high-quality evidence-based care and services.
01:20And so what that did is that it institutionalized a system that I call poor medicine for poor people.
01:27Speakers warned of a new U.S. model that demands health data in exchange for funds,
01:33saying it will be used to create treatments that won't be shared with them.
