Uganda is called the Pearl of Africa, and it is also home to the headquarters of the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET). So it felt fitting that, at the Trans Africa Investment Summit in Kampala hosted by Professor Robinah Nanyunja, I chaired the “Wellbeing Is Wealth” track with AFENET in the room. Racheal Chelimo, the network’s senior communications officer, joined the discussion, and Herbert Kazoora delivered the keynote on behalf of AFENET director Simon Antara, titled “Health Security as Economic Security: Why Investing in Epidemic Preparedness Matters for Africa’s Growth.”
An unlikely guest at an energy summit
The summit’s wider theme was powering Africa with renewable energy and strengthening collaboration between Africa and its diaspora. Kazoora named the question many in the room were quietly asking: why is a public health organisation here?
His answer was simple. AFENET works in more than 40 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, alongside governments, national public health institutes, universities and international partners. Its work spans disease surveillance, laboratory systems, field epidemiology training, immunisation, outbreak response, research and One Health. Every investment in reliable energy, he argued, is also an investment in health security, productivity and national resilience.
Flourishing starts with a stable foundation
In my coaching practice, I see a pattern again and again: people and organisations flourish when the basics are dependable. Safety, predictability and a sense of agency come before ambition. Communities are no different.
Electricity is one of those basics, and it is easy to overlook. In health facilities across Africa it keeps vaccines cold from storage to administration, even in remote communities. It powers the digital systems that let frontline workers report unusual disease events quickly, so governments can act early. It lets laboratories identify pathogens accurately. And in an emergency, it keeps communications, medical equipment and water supplies running.
Dr Kazoora asked us to picture a health facility investigating a suspected outbreak when the power fails. Vaccines may spoil, tests stop and critical information arrives late. What begins as an energy problem becomes a health, social and economic crisis.
There is a psychological side to this too. Uncertainty is exhausting. When a health worker cannot trust that the lights, the lab or the vaccine supply will hold, vigilance turns into strain, and strain erodes judgement and morale. Dependable systems free people to do their best work, which is what flourishing looks like in practice.
Health promotion is more than clinics
Health promotion is often reduced to campaigns and clinics. In truth, it is about shaping the conditions in which people live and work. Reliable power in a health facility is health promotion. So is a trained surveillance workforce, a functioning laboratory and a cold chain that does not break.
This is why renewable energy is more than an environmental story. Solar power, battery storage and resilient systems can keep hospitals, labs, vaccine stores and surveillance systems running whatever the grid does. They also create markets, jobs and innovation.
But equipment alone does not deliver lasting change. It takes long-term financing, maintenance systems, skilled technicians and strong partnerships between governments, investors and development institutions.
The investor’s lens
Healthy populations drive growth, and businesses thrive when communities are protected from outbreaks. Investors look for stable environments where health emergencies do not disrupt markets, supply chains, tourism, trade or workforce productivity. Dr Kazoora’s invitation was to see the public health sector as a strategic investment destination, because the returns reach far beyond healthcare: lives protected, workers more productive, economies safeguarded.
Four takeaways for multisectoral leadership
- Treat health as shared infrastructure. Whatever your sector, ask what your decisions do to the health of the people and communities you depend on. “Where does my sector quietly depend on someone else’s health?”
- Fund the unglamorous enablers. Power, cold chains, maintenance and skilled technicians rarely make headlines, but they decide whether systems work when it matters. Which invisible enabler, if it failed tomorrow, would stop my work?
- Build partnerships before the crisis. Governments, public health institutes, universities, investors and development partners should be working together long before an emergency, not meeting for the first time during one. Who should I be talking to now, so I am not a stranger in a crisis?
- Measure returns in flourishing. Track lives protected, productivity sustained and resilience built alongside financial returns, so success is judged by what it does for people. What would my annual report look like if it counted human flourishing?
Closing thought
Wellbeing is wealth because flourishing people build thriving economies. Africa’s next investment frontier is not only the power lines we lay but the lives they protect. As leaders, our task is to keep the lights on for the systems that keep people well, and to remember that behind every system is a person trying to flourish.
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Dr. Joshua Awesome is a Coaching Psychologist/Executive and Business Performance Coach who has supported over 100,000 professionals across Africa and the globe. He can be reached via: joshua@africainmind.org
Why Africa’s next investment frontier is human wellbeing