The 76th ECSA-HC Health Ministers Conference, themed “Enhancing Health Systems for Equity, Resilience, and Sustainability,” was held in Eswatini from 3–5 February 2026, bringing together ministers and senior leaders to reflect on sustainable health financing, pandemic preparedness, and health workforce development. Against a backdrop of frank discussions on a strained global health financing architecture, inefficient supply chains for essential medicines, and critical health worker shortages across ECSA member states, self-care emerged as a timely and practical pathway toward accelerating Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
CEHURD, the National Self-Care Network lead in Uganda, seized the moment to lobby for a dedicated self-care session at the next ECSA-HC Health Ministers Conference, where Uganda and Kenya would share their journeys and achievements in institutionalizing self-care into their health systems for peer learning across the region. Also highlighted was the role and impact of the Self-Care Trailblazer Group (SCTG) in championing the initialization of self-care into countries’ health systems, drawing from global and Ugandan experiences, remarks that were met with applause and strong affirmation from delegates.
A key immediate win was the adoption of a resolution encouraging member states to collaborate with partners on digital platform innovations for NCD service delivery, monitoring, and community engagement, creating a promising entry point to scale solutions such as the Self-Care App and Dashboard across the region.
“These pathways for collaboration and innovation act as an exciting entry point for self-care advocacy, and our National Self-Care Networks have the experience and learnings required to seize on the opportunity” said George Kapiyo, Senior Technical Advisor for Self-Care at the SCTG, “It’s incredible to see greater buy-in for self-care, especially given the capabilities self-care offers for strengthening health systems in our current climate.”
As health systems become more strained and the global health financing environment continues to shift, self-care provides a cost-saving opportunity for national health systems. Self-care interventions not only bring healthcare closer to communities, but they relieve pressure on health systems and help create a more resilient health infrastructure.
Regional collaboration, such as the conversations at this year’s ECSA-HC Health Ministers Conference, will be critical in upscaling self-care. The shared learning and advocacy presented at this year’s conference is an admirable step towards coming together as a global health community, to meet this moment with greater innovation and resilience.