Michael Gwarisa
Africa’s research and policy community is marking a major milestone with the launch of the African Journal of Health Economics, Systems and Policy (AJHESP), a continent-led, bilingual, fully open-access journal designed to strengthen evidence-based decision-making in health. The journal, which officially launches on May 4, 2026, brings together 11 leading researchers from across Africa and the diaspora, with submissions already open.
The launch comes at a critical time when African governments are under increasing pressure to finance their own health systems amid a sharp decline in external funding. Development assistance for health has fallen significantly in recent years, dropping from US$80 billion in 2021 to below US$40 billion by 2025, according to research published in The Lancet by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Against this backdrop, AJHESP aims to provide accessible, context-driven evidence to inform policy and financing decisions across the continent.
“African health economics data and research are more important now to inform the evolving health financing landscape. How the story of African health financing systems is told requires more context, which often gets missing when the data are published elsewhere. AJHESP is the place to tell that story better and shape context-relevant and evidence-informed policies,” said Prof. Justice Nonvignon, Co-Editor-in-Chief of AJHESP and Professor of Health Economics at the University of Ghana.
The journal is designed to address long-standing barriers that limit African policymakers’ access to critical research. While the continent has seen a steady rise in studies on health financing, insurance design, and pharmaceutical pricing, much of this work has historically been published in journals based in Europe and North America, often locked behind paywalls that restrict access.
AJHESP seeks to close this gap by providing a fully open-access platform where all content is freely available upon publication. Researchers based at African institutions will not be required to pay article processing charges, ensuring broader participation and equitable access to knowledge production and dissemination.
“African governments are being asked to finance their own health systems at the exact moment donor funding is contracting. That requires evidence, the right evidence, produced in the right context, accessible to the right people. That is the gap AJHESP fills,” said Dr. Alex Adjagba, Co-Editor-in-Chief and Senior Health Adviser and Global Lead for Health Economics and Financing at UNICEF’s Center of Excellence in Kenya.
A defining feature of the journal is its bilingual approach, allowing submissions in both English and French. This is expected to bridge the divide between Anglophone and Francophone research communities, while also expanding the reach and usability of African-generated evidence. Editorial content and abstracts will be available in both languages, with an option for African language abstracts.
“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,” said Dr. Fadima Yaya Bocoum, a Founding Editor from Burkina Faso’s IRSS-CNRST.
Beyond language, the journal also aims to transform how research is evaluated and applied. It introduces context-relevant peer review, ensuring that submissions are assessed not only for methodological rigor but also for their relevance to African health systems.
“Who reviews your work determines what gets published. For too long, health systems research from Africa has been assessed by reviewers who understand the methods but not the context. That produces a particular kind of blindness. AJHESP corrects it,” said Prof. Seye Abimbola, a Founding Editor from the University of Sydney.
The journal also places strong emphasis on bridging the gap between research and policymaking by publishing policy-oriented formats such as Policy Papers, Commentaries, and Perspectives.
“Health ministers across Africa are making billion-dollar financing decisions right now. The evidence they need exists. The problem has always been getting it to them in a form they can use. That is what this journal is for,” said Prof. Edwine Barasa, Founding Editor and Director of the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Health Economics Research Unit.
Experts say the initiative is a critical step toward strengthening Africa’s broader evidence ecosystem, particularly at a time when health investments are increasing but systems for translating research into impact remain limited.
“Despite billions invested annually in health across Africa, the infrastructure needed to generate, curate, and use evidence on what works and why remains insufficient. The AJHESP is part of the solution: not the whole answer, but a critical building block in strengthening our continent’s evidence ecosystem and ensuring that investments translate into measurable impact,” said Dr. Djesika Amendah, a Founding Editor from the African Constituency Bureau.
The journal also highlights the growing importance of African voices in shaping global health financing debates, particularly as funding models evolve.
“As global health financing is restructured, the question is not just how resources are allocated, but whose evidence and perspectives shape those decisions. Africa cannot remain a spectator. We need platforms on the continent that generate rigorous, context-driven analysis to guide real policy choices; AJHESP is one of them,” said Prof. Osondu Ogbuoji of the Duke Global Health Institute.
Concerns over declining bilateral aid further underscore the urgency of the initiative, with experts warning that African governments must increasingly rely on domestically generated evidence.
“The outlook for bilateral aid for health to Africa is bleak. Cuts in aid in 2025 foreshadowed this new terrain. African governments need domestically grounded evidence to navigate that. AJHESP exists to provide it,” said Dr. Angela Esi Apeagyei, a Founding Editor from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.
The journal also addresses long-standing financial barriers faced by African researchers, particularly the high cost of publishing in international journals.
“A researcher in Mali producing world-class evidence on health insurance should not have to choose between paying $3,000 to publish it and watching it disappear into a grey literature. That choice has ended,” said Prof. Ama Pokuaa Fenny, a Founding Editor from the University of Ghana.
Other contributors echoed the importance of creating platforms that align academic incentives with real-world impact.
“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,” said Prof. Lumbwe Chola, a Founding Editor based at the University of Oslo.
“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 evidence in a form that travels,” said Dr. Juliet Nabyonga-Orem from the WHO Regional Office for Africa.
With a founding editorial board representing 10 countries and more than 750 peer-reviewed publications, AJHESP is positioning itself as a transformative platform for African-led research. By prioritising accessibility, context, and policy relevance, the journal aims to ensure that evidence generated on the continent directly informs the decisions shaping its health systems.
