Political Economy and History: Making Sense of Health Financing in Sub‐saharan Africa

This paper demonstrates that fundamental to lack of progress towards universal coverage in sub‐Saharan Africa is an elitist post‐colonial political economy that dominates the social organisation in the sub‐region. Too often, it seems that analyses of these issues ignore history and take no or little account of these post‐colonial influences that today still have a bearing on policy in various sectors, especially in health care. We conclude that the achievement of this objective has to be a long‐term process but one that cannot forget history. Various influences are, however, already moving societies in the right direction.