Francophone Africa and the Global Fund Join Forces to Strengthen Public Financial Management and Promote Health Sovereignty
10 November 2025
DAKAR – The government of Senegal and the Global Fund today concluded a high-level regional meeting that marks a turning point in aligning health financing with national public financial management (PFM) systems. Over four days, representatives of finance and health ministries, supreme audit institutions, and civil society from 15 Francophone African countries worked on strengthening the transparency, effectiveness, and sustainability of investments in the health sector. This meeting comes at a crucial time when countries in Francophone Africa must reconcile limited national budgets, reduced external funding, increased social pressure on public finances, and the imperative of financial sovereignty.
The Global Fund leverages its PFM strategy to help countries hold on to the gains made in the health field, save lives, and strengthen national sovereignty. Rigorous and transparent PFM is needed to better plan, execute and control health spending, while preparing for the transition to sustainable domestic financing. Since its inception, the Global Fund has supported the transition of 52 disease components in 38 countries. In the current cycle, this involves 12 components in eight countries, the largest transition to date. As 72% of its investments are made in sub-Saharan Africa, the Global Fund aims to increase institutional capacity for efficient resource management and demonstrates that when aid is properly invested, it promotes sustainable change, strengthens financial governance, and supports the transition to resilient, fully country-led health systems.
“Integrating external funding into national systems is essential for building mutual trust between governments and partners and for ensuring sustainable impacts and a successful transition,” asserted Adda Faye, Chief Financial Officer of the Global Fund. “Countries in the subregion have shown a clear willingness to combine public resources, private capital, and partner funding to build more resilient health systems that are better aligned with their national health priorities.”
Senegal, the meeting’s host country, illustrated this dynamic via its experience in program-based budgeting, digitizing public spending, and increasing coordination between the ministry of finance and budget and the ministry of health, as well as audit institutions. Representing the Minister of Economy, Planning, and Cooperation, Mr. Gorgui Fall, Chief of Staff, emphasized that “this meeting is a key moment for renewing the dialogue between the state, the technical and financial partners, and the supreme audit institutions to ensure a more strategic and credible use of public resources.”
Several of the participating countries also demonstrated significant progress and a genuine commitment to full integration. Benin presented the major changes to its PFM system and the structural innovations that are helping the country to better integrate partner funding into health programs. Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, and Mali highlighted their progress on digitizing expenditures, strengthening audits, and gradually including Global Fund support in the national budget and treasury accounts. Chad, Madagascar and Togo discussed the persistent challenges related to fragmented financial flows and the predictability of disbursements, and shared promising initiatives such as decentralizing authorizations, strengthening national audits, and increasing the use of public financial information systems to improve the consistency of resource availability and reduce parallel mechanisms.
The supreme audit institutions highlighted the reforms undertaken to modernize public auditing: digitizing procedures, adopting international standards, and improving the quality of reports. They reiterated the central role they play in financial accountability, in a context where most health funding comes from external resources.
Senegal’s Minister of Health and Public Hygiene, Dr. Ibrahima Sy, reiterated that “the sustainability of our health progress depends on the strength of our national systems. They must be transparent, grounded in accountability, and rooted in trust. Strengthening their funding by gradually integrating external support requires us to assert our health sovereignty and guarantee quality health services for all citizens.”
At the end of the meeting, the delegations adopted national roadmaps for:
- gradually integrating Global Fund financing into national budgets and systems;
- strengthening audit and transparency mechanisms, in particular by increasing the involvement of inspectorates general and courts of audits;
- accelerating the process of digitizing budget and health information systems.
Participants also emphasized the importance of proactively managing risks, publishing audit reports in a timely way, and holding stakeholders accountable for the recommendations made.
“This collective effort is based on a simple principle: responsibility must be shared,” concluded Ms. Adda Faye. “In Wolof, the expression juub, jubal, jubanti reflects the spirit of this meeting: integrity, rigor, and mutual responsibility. Every investment we make must translate into a concrete, sustainable, and measurable impact on our populations.Together, we can build systems for Africa, in Africa, and with Africa.”