Angela Gichaga strengthens Africa’s health systems by mobilising sustainable financing and empowering frontline community health workers.
Across Africa, community health systems remain largely underfunded. Experts estimate a $2 billion annual funding gap that leaves rural clinics without supplies, health workers unpaid, and millions of families without reliable access to care. This crisis is what drives Dr. Angela Nyambura Gichaga, a Kenyan doctor who chose to shift from treating individual patients to fixing the systems that fail them.
Her journey
Gichaga began her career in medicine after completing her Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree. She worked as a district medical officer of health and hospital in Meru and Garbatulla, Kenya, where she led a 150-member team responsible for strategic planning, resource mobilisation, and service delivery. It was here that she witnessed firsthand the frustrations of under-resourced facilities, overworked staff, and shortages that compromised care.
These experiences convinced her that the most powerful way to save lives was not only at the bedside, but by transforming the structures behind healthcare delivery. She went on to earn a Master’s in Health Economics and Policy and a Fellowship in Public Sector Management, equipping her to bridge clinical work with policy and finance.
Her career quickly expanded beyond frontline care. At the Kenya Ministry of Health headquarters, Gichaga co-developed major national health strategies, including the Universal Health Care Roadmap and the redesign of the Free Maternity Services program, policies that continue to expand access to care for millions of Kenyans.
She later joined McKinsey & Company’s Africa Delivery Hub, working on socio-economic and development issues across the continent. Over the years, her work has taken her to nearly 20 countries, including South Africa, Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Australia, and the United States, giving her a global perspective on health systems and their financing.
Becoming CEO of FAH
In 2016, Gichaga took on one of her most impactful roles as CEO of the Financing Alliance for Health (FAH), a global, African-led organisation that partners with governments to strengthen and sustainably finance primary and community health systems. Under her leadership, FAH has helped mobilise over $38.5 million in domestic health budgets across Southern Africa and catalysed an additional $100 million for community health initiatives.
Her model focuses on engaging ministries of finance alongside ministries of health, ensuring that healthcare is viewed not as an expense but as an investment in national development. Central to her work is supporting community health workers, most of whom are women and youth from rural areas, who form the backbone of healthcare delivery across Africa.
Angela Gichaga also serves as co-Executive Director of Africa Frontline First, a partnership with Last Mile Health and the Community Health Impact Coalition, created to mobilise financing at scale to save and improve lives through stronger frontline health systems. She insists that Africa’s health solutions must be politically owned, programmatically sound, and financially sustainable, moving away from dependence on short-term donor cycles.
Beyond her technical roles, Angela Gichaga is deeply committed to gender and youth empowerment. She mentors women through the African Women in Leadership Network and runs Pathway to Parity, a program designed to elevate women and young professionals in leadership.
Her work has earned international recognition. She was named one of Fortune’s World’s Greatest Leaders (2018), is a Mandela Washington Fellow (2014), an Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellow (2019), and a Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship winner (2022).
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