As Washington recasts its global health agenda, the America First Global Health Strategy (AFGHS) presents itself as a corrective to decades of aid dependence.1 Open-ended assistance is replaced with time-bound bilateral health compacts, emphasising domestic financing, national ownership, and self-reliance—objectives long endorsed in global health policy. Africa has become the primary testing ground for this model, even as continental institutions are attempting to consolidate collective governance, strengthen regional surveillance, and assert health sovereignty.
As Washington recasts its global health agenda, the America First Global Health Strategy (AFGHS) presents itself as a corrective to decades of aid dependence.1 Open-ended assistance is replaced with time-bound bilateral health compacts, emphasising domestic financing, national ownership, and self-reliance—objectives long endorsed in global health policy. Africa has become the primary testing ground for this model, even as continental institutions are attempting to consolidate collective governance, strengthen regional surveillance, and assert health sovereignty.