Background: Even though Africa has the highest disease burden compared with other regions, it has the lowest
per capita spending on health. In 2007, 27 (51%) out the 53 countries spent less than US$50 per person on health.
Almost 30% of the total health expenditure came from governments, 50% from private sources (of which 71% was
from out-of-pocket payments by households) and 20% from donors. The purpose of this article is to reflect on the
proceedings of the African Union Side Event on Health Financing in the African continent.