African researchers launch first continent-based open-access journal in health financing, economics, policy

…will address out-of-pocket expenditure, social health insurance design, pharm pricing etc, now relevant as development assistance is reducing 

Researchers from various African countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya Uganda, and others have collaborated to launch the first open-access journal in health financing, health economics and policy.

The journal called African Journal of Health Economics, Systems and Policy (AJHESP), is the continent’s first bilingual, fully open-access, peer-reviewed journal on the subject matter that was launched on May 4, 2026, with submissions now open.

The launch comes as African governments face mounting pressure to build sustainable domestic health financing systems at a time when development assistance for health is contracting sharply.

Read also: Africa pursues domestic health financing as donor support falls 70% since 2021

According to research published in The Lancet by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, development assistance for health in Africa fell from $80 billion in 2021 to under $40 billion by 2025, more than halving in four years.

AJHESP positions itself as a platform for the policy-relevant, Africa-rooted evidence that this moment demands.

Rationale for the Journal

For decades, African policymakers have faced a persistent paradox. While the continent produces an ever-growing body of research on health financing and systems, this vital evidence is often trapped behind international paywalls of Europe and North American based Journals.

These published Journals with critical insights into social health insurance, pharmaceutical pricing, and health reform, have frequently remained inaccessible to those who need them most.

Now according to the authors, AJHESP is established to close this gap as a platform that is built in Africa and led by African researchers, designed to ensure that evidence is not only high-quality but actionable within the health systems where it is generated.

Read also: Experts at SYNLAB roundtable push for health financing overhaul

Bridging the gap between evidence and action

The rationale for AJHESP is rooted in the need for local context.

Osondu Ogbuoji, professor from the Duke Global Health Institute believes Africa can no longer remain a spectator in global health restructuring. He argues that the continent needs its own platforms to generate rigorous analysis that guides real policy choices.

Also for years, African health research has been subject to external validation that often overlooks local realities.
Seye Abimbola, a professor at the University of Sydney argues that who reviews a researcher’s work ultimately determines what is published. He notes that when African health systems research is assessed by those who understand the methods but not the context, it “produces a particular kind of blindness,” a systemic issue that AJHESP is designed to correct.

Justice Nonvignon, co-editor-in-chief of AJHESP and professor of Health Economics at the University of Ghana, notes that “African health economics data and research are more important now than ever to inform the evolving health financing landscape. How the story of African health financing systems is told requires context, which is often lost when data is published elsewhere”.

This lack of context-driven analysis has often left policymakers without the tools they need. Edwine Barasa, professor and director of the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Health Economics Research Unit, points out that while the necessary evidence exists, the challenge has always been getting it to health ministers in a usable form. He emphasises that the journal’s purpose is to facilitate those “billion-dollar financing decisions” currently being made across the continent.

Read also: Health Financing: Private sector seeks enabling policies, long-term capital

Also, Juliet Nabyonga-Orem, medical doctor and founding editor from the WHO Regional Office for Africa, noted this about the Journal saying, “The distance between a peer-reviewed paper and a policy decision is real and well-documented. This journal was designed with that distance in mind, not just to produce evidence, but to produce it in a form that travels.”

A bilingual and inclusive platform

One of the journal’s most significant features is its commitment to inclusivity across the continent’s linguistic divides. Fadima Yaya Bocoum, PhD, founding editor in Burkina Faso, highlights the importance of this approach.

“Francophone Africa has been generating rigorous health economics evidence for decades. What has been missing is a bilingual platform that makes that work visible to English-speaking researchers and policymakers, and vice versa. AJHESP bridges that divide.”

Also, the journal serves as a vital link for the global African research community.

Lumbwe Chola, PhD, founding editor from the University of Oslo, observes,

“African researchers in the diaspora have always had to navigate a choice: publish where it counts for your career or publish where it matters for the communities you came from. AJHESP makes that a false choice.”