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Presented by The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine | WHO leader race begins, and the scoop on a new USAID watchdog initiative.
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With so much in flux in the world of global health — from shifting funding priorities to a rapidly evolving global health architecture — we’ve decided to publish Devex Checkup twice a week to help you stay on top of the changes that matter most. Starting next week, you’ll receive this newsletter every Tuesday and Thursday. 
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The 2026 World Health Summit regional meeting kicked off in Nairobi, Kenya, this week, where African leaders are recognizing that some of the continent’s health development gaps are, at least in part, self-inflicted.
Devex contributor David Njagi, who was on the ground, didn’t quite walk in on a full-blown “it’s me, hi, I’m the problem” moment à la Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” — but the sentiment wasn’t far off. He captured Kenyan President William Ruto sharing the gibberish explanations he got after digging into why Kenya is not buying health products from Kenyan companies. “Many leaders in Africa believe health is somebody else’s responsibility. You are producing a commodity that is being imported globally, and you cannot buy it in Kenya. These are Kenyan companies owned by Kenyans. But when you ask the people at the Ministry of Health, why are we not buying from these people? There is a lot of ‘English’ that has no substance,” he said. The problem extends beyond manufacturing to access to treatment, David tells me. During the same session, Africa CDC Director-General Dr. Jean Kaseya pointed out that more than 50% of patients in Africa pay out of pocket for treatment, a challenge exacerbated by public healthcare inefficiencies. “We are doing some input to raise more funding, but we are losing most of our funding due to inefficiencies. Who is telling us not to fix our systems? Why are we blaming Western countries if ourselves we cannot do the job we need to do,” he asked. “When we fix our systems, then we can talk about our partners.” Stay tuned for more news from the summit.  And before you read further, a small request: Can you give us some feedback? We’d love to know how our reporting on changes in U.S. health priorities or reforms at multilateral institutions has been useful in your work. Please reply directly to this email with your testimonial.
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A message from The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
The missing evidence: Anemia, postpartum bleeding, and maternal death Tackling anemia could be key to reducing maternal deaths. New evidence shows moderate and severe anemia sharply increases risks of death, stillbirth, and other harms for mothers and babies. Prevention, screening, and treatment matter, alongside better postpartum hemorrhage diagnosis and wider use of tranexamic acid to reduce bleeding. |
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Big brother
One other area African leaders might want to work on is their health supply chains.
No, it’s not 1984. But the USAID Office of Inspector General is launching a partnership that will create a sort of surveillance system to track U.S.-funded health products and flag when they end up in the wrong hands — and the wrong place. The system will alert OIG if and when medications show up outside their intended geographic location. Medical supply theft and fraud of U.S.-funded health commodities are not new. In October 2025, the U.S. government charged two men with conspiring to illegally divert HIV test kits and other medical supplies meant for Kenya. According to the indictment, a Kenyan national “systematically stole” the supplies and sold them to a Guyanese national, who then resold them to the Guyana Ministry of Health. This new system, however, won’t solve everything. Sean Bottary, OIG’s acting assistant inspector general for investigations, tells my colleague Elissa Miolene that while it can flag where a health product shows up, it doesn’t explain how it got there. So they still need to work with governments and other partners to strengthen local controls and investigations. Scoop: USAID watchdog launches system to flag diverted health supplies  Background reading: The US charges two with theft from USAID Kenya procurement program |
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Let the race begin
The World Health Organization has finally opened nominations for its next director-general, with the call for proposals now circulating among permanent missions in Geneva, Devex has confirmed.
The move follows the election timeline already set out by WHO. According to the document shared with member states and seen by Devex, any country may nominate one or more candidates, but submissions must reach WHO headquarters by 18:00 CEST on Sept. 24 — exactly four months before the executive board convenes in January 2027 to shortlist up to three candidates for the World Health Assembly. Candidate names will be disclosed after the last WHO regional committee meetings in October. The document also states that the incumbent WHO director-general “intends to place internal candidates on leave to ensure a clear separation between their campaign activities and their WHO functions.” While no officials have publicly announced their candidacy, the rumor mill is already spinning. Names being floated include WHO officials such as Dr. Hanan H. Balkhy and Dr. Hans Kluge, as well as Indonesian health minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin. Others have also mentioned former Qatar health minister Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari, PAHO Director Dr. Jarbas Barbosa da Silva Jr., and Gavi CEO Sania Nishtar.
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Mark your calendar! Devex Impact House returns to Geneva on May 20-21 alongside the World Health Assembly. The Devex CheckUp team will be on the ground for two days of live journalism and candid conversation, discussing the future of global health. |
Sponsored by McKinsey Health Institute
Investing in health could lead to trillions in global growth
What if stronger health systems were treated as an investment and economic engine? At a Devex event with McKinsey Health Institute, Dr. Pooja Kumar points out that investing in proven health interventions could unlock trillions in value — if countries can finally scale what already works.. |
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Less than 1%
Here’s a fact: Noncommunicable diseases are the world’s biggest killers. But here’s, ironically, their chronic problem: They still don’t get the funding and attention to match.
The numbers speak for themselves: 1.7 billion people were living with hypertension in 2020, a 73.4% increase from 2000. Dr. Renu Garg, who leads cardiovascular health programs at Resolve to Save Lives, tells me that number has now likely climbed to 2 billion people. This isn’t just some statistic. I have more close family members on lifelong blood pressure medication than I have fingers. And as I write this, I’m preparing to attend the wake of a friend’s father, who suddenly died from a heart attack. Yet funding for cardiovascular health is nowhere near the billions of lives it affects — just less than 1% of global development assistance for health, or $69 million in 2023. And of that amount, only $4 million went to addressing hypertension, according to data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation that I’ve seen. I asked Dr. Garg if there are donors stepping in to help increase funding to tackle NCDs. She pointed to the World Diabetes Foundation and the Helmsley Charitable Trust for Type 1 diabetes, but overall, Bloomberg Philanthropies is the only major donor in the space. Read more: How can global health prioritize NCDs, the world’s biggest killers?
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A message from The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
The missing evidence: Anemia, postpartum bleeding, and maternal death
Reducing anemia could be key to reducing maternal deaths. New evidence from the WOMAN Trials shows that severe and moderate anemia — prevalent across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia — greatly increases the risk of death, stillbirth, and other harms for mothers and babies. Anemia prevention, screening, and treatment are vital, alongside better ways for diagnosing postpartum hemorrhage and expanding the use of tranexamic acid — a drug commonly used to reduce bleeding. |
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The fault
One thing Dr. Garg kept emphasizing was that addressing hypertension — and NCDs overall — doesn’t require a separate program or system, which is too often the “default mode in global health.” It can — and should — be done at the primary healthcare level, where health workers can deliver services across diseases, not in silos.
This needs to happen sooner rather than later, experts say, as development assistance is dropping and more people are dying from chronic diseases. In Zimbabwe, this is happening as U.S. funding dries up. PEPFAR — the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief — has provided nearly $90 million each year toward salaries and incentives for about 21,700 health workers in Zimbabwe. But U.S. funding cuts from 2025 and the collapse of a $367 million bilateral health agreement between the two countries meant that thousands of these health workers have been forced to stop work. Those who continue are doing so on voluntary terms. But here’s a little silver lining. Some of those community health workers are training to help provide a wider range of health services — from giving maternal health advice and referrals for conditions such as high blood pressure to providing education on sanitation, nutrition, and immunization — instead of focusing on a single disease. They’re doing this to continue serving their communities. But they are also hoping they will get absorbed into the government’s payroll system. After all, nothing in life is free. Read: Aid cuts and a failed deal — Zimbabwe’s frontline health care under strain Opinion: Why don’t proven health interventions reach people who need them? |
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Your next job?
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What we’re reading
Afghanistan is at risk of losing up to 20,000 female teachers and 5,400 health workers by 2030 if Taliban restrictions on girls’ education and women’s employment are not lifted, warns UNICEF. [Reuters] Myanmar’s military regime is banning sanitary pads due to claims they are being used to treat wounded resistance fighters, leaving women and girls to use rags, leaves, or newspaper. [The Guardian]
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We hope you’ve enjoyed this edition, which was edited by Rumbi Chakamba, copy edited by Sheri-kae McLeod, and produced by Mariane Samson. For any news tips, please get in touch: [email protected].
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