“How many more lives must be lost before we recognise diabetes as the silent emergency reshaping Africa’s future?” — Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, Former WHO Regional Director for Africa
As the world marks World Diabetes Day today, under the theme “Diabetes Across Life Stages”, Africa confronts one of the fastest-growing diabetes epidemics globally, a growing emergency that echoes Dr. Moeti’s powerful warning. This chronic condition affects children through type 1 diabetes, adolescents and adults via type 2, driven by lifestyle shifts, and older populations with compounding complications. Prevention, early detection, and lifelong management must span every age to avert devastating health, economic, and social impacts.
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The Data Behind the Crisis
Current estimates paint a stark picture for the IDF Africa Region. Approximately 24–25 million adults lived with diabetes in 2024, yet prevalence, though at 5%, is rising rapidly. Africa holds the highest proportion of undiagnosed cases in the world, with 73% of affected adults unaware of their condition. In 2024 alone, diabetes caused about 216,000 deaths, and the continent recorded the highest premature mortality from the disease. Projections reveal an alarming 142% surge, bringing the adult diabetic population to nearly 60 million by 2050, while pre-diabetes markers are expected to rise by over 130%. Despite this escalating burden, healthcare spending remains critically low at USD 10 billion, a mere 1% of global expenditure.
Why the Burden Keeps Growing
Across the continent, rapid urbanisation and lifestyle changes fuel the rise in type 2 diabetes, while under-nutrition in some areas continues to affect metabolic health. Weak screening systems, limited awareness, and fragile primary healthcare infrastructures mean many remain undiagnosed until complications set in. Access to essential medicines and monitoring tools is restricted by cost and availability, particularly in rural communities. Families often bear catastrophic expenses, while health systems already stretched by infectious diseases lack the workforce, equipment, and referral pathways needed for chronic disease management. Stigma, misinformation, and mental health burdens deepen the challenge, driving high rates of premature death and severe complications.
Africa’s Response: Building Strength Through Action
Despite significant obstacles, Africa is mobilising. In 2024, African Member States endorsed the WHO Framework for Implementation of the Global Diabetes Compact in Africa, signalling a commitment to integrating diabetes prevention, diagnosis, and care into national systems. WHO PEN is now active in 31 countries, empowering frontline workers with early detection and management skills. PEN-Plus strengthens district hospitals in 20 countries, expanding access to insulin, oral medication, and advanced care. Countries like Ghana and Uganda are leading with integrated primary care approaches, digital registries, and self-management training. Partnerships with IDF, Sanofi, and ministries of health offer professional development and community-based programs that promote healthy living across schools, workplaces, and faith institutions. Broader initiatives under the African Union and WHO HEARTS emphasise policies that reduce sugar consumption and promote active living.
Why Every Life Stage Matters
These steps highlight a shift toward resilient, person-centred systems that support diabetes care from childhood to old age. A child with type 1 diabetes needs consistent insulin access and supportive schools. Young adults require early screening to prevent complications. Working populations need environments that support healthy choices, while older people rely on systems capable of preventing or managing complications. The life-course approach is not optional; it is essential.
African Leadership Magazine’s Urgent Call to Action
The statistics are a wake-up call. If Africa reaches 60 million diabetes cases by 2050, fragile health systems will be overwhelmed, national productivity will decline, and millions of promising lives will be cut short. African Leadership Magazine urges presidents, policymakers, and development leaders to recognise diabetes as a national emergency. Immediate, decisive action is required across multiple fronts:
• Prioritise Funding for Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs): Increase domestic budgets for NCD prevention and care, ensuring resources reach primary health facilities, rural clinics, and community programs. Adequate funding will support life-saving medicines, diagnostics, and health workforce expansion.
• Implement the WHO Global Diabetes Compact Framework Fully: Integrate prevention, early diagnosis, and care into all levels of the health system. This includes ensuring availability of insulin, glucose monitors, and patient education programs across urban and rural settings.
• Reform Food and Urban Policies: Introduce and enforce sugar taxes, regulate unhealthy food marketing, and promote policies that make nutritious local foods accessible and affordable. Urban planning should encourage active living with safe walking paths, recreational spaces, and cycling infrastructure.
• Invest in Health Workers: Train and deploy nurses, community health workers, and clinicians to deliver diabetes care across all life stages, from childhood to older adulthood. Specialised training should include prevention, early detection, and complication management.
• Launch Nationwide Awareness Campaigns: Educate communities on diabetes prevention, early diagnosis, self-care, and healthy lifestyle choices. Campaigns should target all age groups, children, youth, working adults, and older persons, and incorporate culturally appropriate messaging.
• Leverage Technology and Innovation: Use digital health tools, mobile clinics, and telemedicine to improve access to care in remote or underserved regions. Data-driven systems can help monitor trends, track patients, and optimise interventions.
• Address Socioeconomic and Gender Inequities: Ensure women, youth, and marginalised groups have equal access to care, education, and empowerment initiatives. Reducing barriers will prevent intergenerational transmission of health risks.
The Future Depends on the Choices Made Today
Diabetes may be a silent emergency, but it is not an unstoppable one. Africa stands at a crossroads where decisive leadership, empowered communities, and resilient health systems can rewrite the narrative. The next 25 years will determine whether diabetes becomes one of the continent’s greatest public health failures or one of its most inspiring success stories. The choices made today will shape the future of millions of children, families, and nations.
World Diabetes Day 2025 is not just a commemoration; it is a call to courage. A call to protect every life stage. A call to invest in health. A call to act, together and without delay.
Africa’s future can be brighter, stronger, and healthier, but only if we rise to meet this moment with urgency, unity, and unwavering resolve. The time to turn the tide is now.
