The reforms of WHO's emergency work led to the establishment of a WHO Health Emergencies Programme for the African Region and the creation of three emergency hubs in Dakar, Nairobi and South Africa aimed at strengthening national capacities and coordinating international action to prevent, prepare, detect and rapidly respond to and recover from outbreaks and emergencies in the Region. Of notable mention is the now strengthened regional detection of outbreaks which has improved from 17 days in 2015 to 48 hours, and quicker containment from 418 days in 2016 to 40 days by 2020.

The scope of investments in eradicating polio and neglected tropical diseases are yielding results. Wild poliovirus has now been kicked out of Africa after a 25-year struggle and neglected tropical diseases such as lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, soil-transmitted helminthiasis, schistosomiasis and trachoma are being successfully eliminated. Leprosy has been eliminated in 46 Member States; 41 Member States are now certified against Guinea Worm and trachoma was eliminated in Cote d'Ivoire and the Gambia in 2021. Joint efforts to increase HIV treatment access is contributing to steady declines in AIDS related deaths and further buttressing efforts to prevent new infections.

The quality of family and reproductive health care has been improved and maternal, child and neonatal mortality rates have reduced significantly in the Region. The evaluation of the AFRO Adolescent Health flagship program and WHO's six-year effort to boost sexuality education in East and Southern Africa revealed increased political will, youth mobilization, and a decrease in new HIV infections among young people in recent years.

The Region is witnessing first-hand the millions of children's lives saved in WHO's efforts to reach every child with its expanded programme on immunization. The malaria vaccine piloted in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi reached over 300,000 children and has advanced towards a WHO policy recommendation. This will have a tremendous impact in malaria endemic countries given that malaria vaccinations would be scaled throughout the Region to save millions of lives.

Concerted efforts continue to be placed in building strong and resilient health systems in the African Region by increasing the quality and density of health workers; which expanded from 1.3 to 1.6 doctors, nurses and midwives per 1000 population between 2015 and 2021. Great strides have also been made in galvanizing multi-sectoral action to address the social and economic determinants of health and tackle noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). By 2021, 30 Member States had developed and were implementing NCD prevention and control plans.