Most accounts of health and healthcare in Africa are written by foreigners. African Health Leaders: Making Change and Claiming the Future redresses the balance. Written by Africans, who have themselves led improvements in their own countries, the book discusses the creativity, innovation and leadership that has been involved tackling everything from HIV/AIDs, to maternal, and child mortality and neglected tropical diseases. It celebrates their achievements and shows how, over three generations, African health leaders are creating a distinctively African vision of health and health systems.

The book reveals how African Health Leaders are claiming the future - in Africa, but also by sharing their insights and knowledge globally and contributing fully to improving health throughout the world. It illustrates how African leadership can enable foreign agencies and individuals working in Africa to avoid all those misunderstandings and misinterpretations of culture and context which lead to wasted efforts and frustrated hopes.

African Health Leaders challenges Africans to do more for themselves; build on success; tackle weak governance, corrupt systems and low expectations and claim the future. It sets out what Africa needs from the rest of the world in the spirit of global solidarity - not primarily in aid, but through investment, collaboration, partnership and co-development. It concludes with a vision for improvement based on three foundations: an understanding that 'health is made at home'; the determination to offer access to health services for everyone; and an insistence on the pursuit of quality.

Francis Omaswa, Executive Director, African Centre for Global Health and Social Transformation (ACHEST), Uganda,Nigel Crisp, Independent Member of the House of Lords and Former Chief Executive of the NHS, UK

Dr Francis Omaswa is Executive Director of the African Centre for Global Health and Social Transformation (ACHEST) and Chair of the African Platform on Human Resources for Health. Francis has served as Special Adviser to the WHO Director General and was the founding Executive Director of the Global Health Workforce Alliance (GHWA).
At global level he served as founding chair, and later Vice-Chairman, of the Global Stop TB Partnership; was one of the architects of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria and served as Chair of the Portfolio and Procurement Committee of the Board; was a member of the steering committee of the High Level Forum on health-related MDGs; and was Chair of the GAVI Independent Review Committee, among other commitments. Dr Omaswa is a graduate of Makerere Medical School, Kampala, Uganda.


Lord Nigel Crisp is an independent crossbench member of the House of Lords where he co-chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health. He was Chief Executive of the NHS in England and Permanent Secretary of the UK Department of Health between 2000 and 2006. Previously he was Chief Executive of the Oxford Radcliffe Hospital NHS Trust.
Lord Crisp chairs Sightsavers, the Kings Partners Global Health Advisory Board, The Zambia UK Health Workforce Alliance, and the Uganda UK Health Alliance. He is an Ambassador for the eHealth Foundation, a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health and an Honorary Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Nigel is author of 'Turning the World Upside Down - the search for global health in 21st century' and '24 hours to save the NHS'.

Part 1: Overview of African health leaders
1. Introduction: African health leaders, Dr Francis Omaswa and Lord Nigel Crisp
2. Health leadership in Africa, Dr Francis Omaswa
Part 2: The greatest challenges
3. Introduction: The greatest challenges, Dr Francis Omaswa and Lord Nigel Crisp
4. Pioneering work on HIV/Aids in Uganda, Dr Peter Mugyenyi
5. Mobilising the community against maternal death - the Malawi community champion model, Dr Chisale Mhango
6. Epidemiology and health policy in Africa, Dr Luis Sambo
Part 3: All the resources of the community
7. Introduction: All the resources of the community, Dr Francis Omaswa and Lord Nigel Crisp
8. Community health, community workers and community governance, Dr Miriam Were
9. The development of Community Directed Treatment for tackling river blindness, Dr Uche Amazigo
10. Politics, economics and society, Advocate Bience Gawanas
Part 4: Making the best use of all the talents
11. Introduction: Making the best use of all the talents, Dr Francis Omaswa and Lord Nigel Crisp
12. Technicos de cirurgia - assistant medical officers trained for surgery in Mozambique, The Honourable Dr Pascoal Moccumbi
13. All the skills of the health team, Dr Hannah Faal
14. The evolution of professional education and health systems in Sub Saharan Africa, The Honourable Professor Gottlieb Monekosso
15. Indigenous knowledge systems, Professor Catherine A Odora-Hoppers
Part 5: Health for the whole population - leaving no one behind
16. Introduction: Health for the whole population - leaving no one behind, Dr Francis Omaswa and Lord Nigel Crisp
17. Twenty years of improving access to health care in Rwanda, The Honourable Dr Agnes Binagwaho
18. HIV/AIDS and National Health insurance in South Africa, Lord Nigel Crisp in conversation with The Honourable Dr Aaron Motsoaledi
19. Coverage of the poor: innovative health financing in Ghana, Dr Frank Nyonator
20. Health for the whole population, Dr Patrick Kadama and Dr Peter Eriki
Part 6: The future
21. Introduction: The future, Dr Francis Omaswa and Lord Nigel Crisp
22. The future: view from a Minister, The Honourable Miatta Kargbo
23. The future: younger and future leaders, Lord Nigel Crisp in conversation with John Paul Bagala, Clarisse Bombi, Susana Edjang, Dr Ndwapi Ndwapi, Dr Kelechi Ohiri and Dr Nana Twum Danso
24. The future: vision and challenges, Dr Francis Omaswa and Lord Nigel Crisp