Oxfam reaction to ICIJ investigation exposing the World Bank's harmful privatization of healthcare in Africa

In response to the investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) revealing how World Bank-backed healthcare investments are deepening poverty and denying care in Africa, Oxfam International’s Health Policy Manager Anna Marriott said:

“Oxfam is deeply alarmed by the ICIJ's findings, which once again show how the World Bank Group and other publicly funded development banks—including the UK’s—are bankrolling a brutal model of private healthcare that excludes and exploits patients and prioritizes profits over human lives.

"The report exposes how millions in development funds are going to pay exorbitant management fees to private equity firms who are investing in expensive for-profit hospitals that leave patients indebted, denied care, and even imprisoned for being too poor to pay.

“Despite repeated scandals, oversight of these investments remains shamefully weak. For over two years, Oxfam has urged the World Bank Group and high-income governments like the UK to halt these harmful investments and fully investigate and remedy the damage caused. Their failure to act makes them complicit in ongoing abuse.”