Africa Frontline First
Africa Frontline First is an Africa-led partnership that drives smarter, more effective financing to bring lifesaving care to millions across Africa. By catalyzing $2 billion by 2030, Africa Frontline First will train and deploy 200,000 professional community health workers to serve 100 million people across the continent.
Africa Frontline First
Africa Frontline First is a groundbreaking, collaborative initiative that aims to close the community health financing gap in Africa. By catalyzing $2 billion by 2030, Africa Frontline First will enable 200K professionalized community health workers to serve 100 million people across 10 countries.
In Africa, financing remains the largest systemic barrier to scaling and sustaining quality community health services, and there is an estimated $4.4 billion annual funding gap for community health on the continent. Further, the majority of existing funding in the region is directed towards vertical, disease-specific community health worker programs, despite strong evidence for the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of integrated programs.
To help close the community health funding gap, Last Mile Health co-launched Africa Frontline First under the championship of H.E. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and alongside Community Health Impact Coalition and Financing Alliance for Health. To date, Africa Frontline First has unlocked $219 million in catalytic financing from the private, public, and social sectors—including launching the largest fund for community health workers in history—and is providing technical assistance to 17 African countries.
To meet the promise of professional community health workers—and drive progress toward universal health coverage, pandemic preparedness and response, and gender equity—we must radically transform community health financing. Africa Frontline First works to achieve this by unlocking financing to train and deploy 200,000 professional community health workers, delivering essential care to 100 million people by 2030. Here’s how we’re making it happen:
- We catalyze funding. We increase and improve the quality of financing for community health.
- We empower countries. We provide technical assistance to 16 African countries to strengthen community health systems.
- We advocate. We collaborate with Africa-wide institutions, heads of state, and other high-level champions to mobilize active political support for strong community health systems.
Last Mile Health serves as the lead service provider for Project BIRCH, a targeted funding stream from the Global Fund that is supporting countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to access expanding financing for their community health priorities. In this role, we enable Africa Frontline First to deploy funding to 17 countries for country-led initiatives that will scale the community health program. Through this partnership, we’ve helped secure $27 million in Global Fund financing across countries including Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, and Sierra Leone, where we also serve as direct implementers due to our longstanding presence and trusted government partnerships.
Last Mile Health’s 15-year track record building community health systems in partnership with governments makes our organization uniquely positioned to help ensure this goal becomes a reality. This initiative will be the cornerstone of our advocacy efforts globally over the next five years, as aligned with the Closing the Distance strategy.
Last Mile Health’s 15-year track record building community health systems in partnership with governments makes our organization uniquely positioned to help ensure this goal becomes a reality. This initiative will be the cornerstone of our advocacy efforts globally over the next five years, as aligned with the Closing the Distance strategy.
In September 2022, Africa Frontline First announced a catalytic fund, housed at the Global Fund with contributions from the Skoll Foundation and Johnson & Johnson, mobilizing $100 million: the largest fund in history for professionalized community health workers. Building on this momentum, Africa Frontline First’s upcoming scale mechanism will seek to develop and deploy innovative and sustainable financing solutions to achieve its goals.
“I was able to spend a day with Patrick Malachi, a community health worker in Kenya. Beyond the clinical knowledge and training, Patrick’s strongest asset was the trust his community had in him. That’s irreplaceable. When I asked him and his colleagues what could help them in their work, I got the same response that I’ve heard for nearly a decade in rural Liberia, in districts in Malawi, and in many other geographies: consistent payment, supportive supervision, adequate supplies, and recognition for their efforts. The answer to universal health coverage is deeply intertwined with the dignified work of community health workers.”
Nan Chen,
Co-Executive Director of Africa Frontline First
“I was able to spend a day with Patrick Malachi, a community health worker in Kenya. Beyond the clinical knowledge and training, Patrick’s strongest asset was the trust his community had in him. That’s irreplaceable. When I asked him and his colleagues what could help them in their work, I got the same response that I’ve heard for nearly a decade in rural Liberia, in districts in Malawi, and in many other geographies: consistent payment, supportive supervision, adequate supplies, and recognition for their efforts. The answer to universal health coverage is deeply intertwined with the dignified work of community health workers.”
Nan Chen,
Co-Executive Director of Africa Frontline First
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