Giving Compass' Take:

• Noncommunicable diseases such as cancer and diabetes are increasing in Africa. However, it is challenging to obtain sufficient funding needed to address these diseases. 

• How can philanthropy and the private sector work with local governments to solve the funding dilemma? What are the first steps that need to be taken?

• Read about funding recommendations for other global health problems. 

The disease burden on the African continent is shifting from infectious diseases, such as HIV and tuberculosis, to noncommunicable diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. But while the number of NCD cases on the continent continues to grow, funding for these types of diseases has not yet met the need.

The continent is currently in short supply of specialized physicians and medical equipment, making it difficult to keep pace with the growing caseload, among other challenges. NCDs are often more difficult to treat than infectious diseases, requiring more complex and expensive treatment plans.

Much about the way African health systems are currently tackling these diseases is inefficient. Lack of proper prevention and screening measures means patients are often misdiagnosed or diagnosed late, which increases the cost and intensity of the treatment, Khama Rogo, head of the World Bank Group's Health in Africa Initiative, told the audience.

Broadly speaking, African governments do not spend enough on health care. Within health care spending, funding for NCDs is even less of a priority, said Andreas Seiter, global lead for private sector health, nutrition, and population for the World Bank. Moreover, when external donors provide funds to countries for health care, governments in Africa have demonstrated a tendency to divert the funds that they had been planning to spend on health care to other sectors, said Seiter.

Across the continent, most NCD financing comes out of the pocket of patients, said Seiter. Technology can be used to pool those fragmented payments so that they can be used to put pressure on service providers to improve the quality of their services and products.

Read the full article about funding noncommunicable diseases by Sara Jerving at Devex.