“SELF-FINANCING WILL DEFINE AFRICA'S NEXT DECADE” UNFPA WEST AND CENTRAL AFRICA REGIONAL DIRECTOR ON DW TV

Rising inequality, explosive urban growth and a shrinking pool of foreign aid are reshaping Africa's development path, and how governments and their partners respond, not the pressures themselves, will decide whether the Sustainable Development Goals stay within reach. That is the central message from Dr Sennen Hounton, UNFPA Regional Director for West and Central Africa, in a wide-ranging interview with DW.

Dr. Hounton pointed to two trends every government and partner must plan around together: deepening inequality even in fast-growing economies, and a demographic shift that will see more than 60 percent of the region's population living in cities by 2030, adding pressure to services already stretched by slums and peri-urban growth.

His call is one of shared responsibility rather than blame. Governments and their partners, he suggested, are increasingly aligned around a common goal: strengthening how countries finance their own health, education and social protection systems, alongside continued international support.

"We cannot rely on partners, development partners, for our development," Hounton told DW. "Government must be paying for the social service of their population." He was quick to add that many governments are already moving in this direction, funding girls' education through to the end of secondary school and building national health insurance schemes that reach the extreme poor, evidence, he said, that domestic ownership of development is already under way in parts of the region.

Asked whether the international system could have better prepared Africa for today's aid cuts, Hounton was candid: yes. He described how UNFPA is working alongside development banks and the private sector on instruments such as social bonds to help governments raise their own capital, alongside a regional roadmap to eliminate maternal mortality and a push to localise humanitarian response through national rosters of midwives and gender-based violence specialists.

He was equally hopeful on HIV: ending AIDS without foreign aid is realistic, he said, given sustained political will across parliaments, youth movements and the private sector, working hand in hand with partners like UNFPA. He pointed too to Africa's youth as reason for optimism, provided governments and partners match their creativity with real employment and vocational training pathways.

The interview lands as Hounton visits Accra for the African Union Extraordinary Summit on Health, where financing partnerships and self-reliance are expected to feature prominently among health ministers and development partners from across the continent.