Season’s Greetings and Best Wishes for 2026
Dear Partners, Colleagues, and Friends of ARC,
As we come to the close of this year and look ahead to 2026, I would like to extend to you my warmest season’s greetings and sincere wishes for health, peace, and success in the year to come.
This period of reflection carries a particular resonance for the Africa Resource Centre. It marks ten years since a bold and simple question gave birth to ARC: if a cold bottle of soda can reach the most remote corners of our continent, why should an essential health product remain out of reach for millions of Africans?
That question continues to guide us.
Over the past decade, ARC has worked alongside governments, regional institutions, development partners, academia, and the private sectorto demonstrate a core conviction: health supply chains are not a support function, but a strategic pillar of health system strengthening and a foundation of health sovereignty. Together, we have contributed to building local expertise, developing talent, sharing knowledge, and strengthening systems designed by Africans, for Africa.
Our journey has not been without challenges. We have had to advocate, explain, and sometimes insist that sustainable access to health products requires long-term vision, technical excellence, strong government ownership, and increased domestic funding. These efforts have helped shift mindsets and practices across the ecosystem, paving the way for supply chain transformation to be fully recognized as a priority.
Building on this progress and the foundations laid through sustained advocacy and system strengthening, ARC’s Differentiated Service Delivery (DSD) approach, for example, is now translating vision into measurable results for maternal and child health across Africa.
In Senegal, a pilot implemented across 30 sites resulted in a 2.1% increase in contraceptive prevalence in the Tambacounda district and has since been scaled up to two regions, covering 11 districts and 237 sites.
In Burkina Faso, 711 community health workers were trained, and 1,622 DMPA-SC units were delivered to women within just nine months in Boromo and Yako.
In Kenya, the model is expanding through private pharmacies, reaching five counties, including 694 Recipients of Care, who represent 23% of people living with HIV on ART, with 233 retail outlets enrolled as of October 2025.
The pilot phase of Uganda’s Community Retail Pharmacy Drug Distribution Point (CRPDDP), supported by ARC, reached nearly 50,000 recipients of care using the retail pharmacy outlets (133 across 79 health facilities) to collect their medicines, with 85% of the targeted pharmacies enrolled.
These community-based approaches, transitioned and fully owned by governments, bring healthcare services closer to where people live, eliminating barriers of distance, cost, and social stigma that limit access to essential healthcare.
Today, the global context is changing. Funding mechanisms are evolving, and long-standing models are being questioned. Yet this moment only reinforces a truth we have always held: “health is a sovereign responsibility of governments, and lasting solutions must be anchored in strong national systems”.ARC enters this new phase with confidence, strengthened partnerships, diversified support, and a clear commitment to independence, neutrality, and impact.
As we step into 2026, we do so with renewed ambition. We will continue to capitalize on the knowledge built over the past ten years, explore innovative tools and technologies, and refine our operating model to better serve countries and communities. A new strategic chapter is opening, one shaped by experience, resilience, and a shared belief in Africa’s capacity to design and lead its own solutions.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to our board, partners, donors, governments, institutions, and the ARC teamfor your trust, collaboration, and dedication. Your commitment makes our collective progress possible.
May 2026 be a year of renewed energy, stronger partnerships, and concrete advances toward a future where every African can fully exercise their right to health.
Happy New Year to you and your loved ones.
Best regards,
