Getting it Right with Health: Foreign Direct Investment as Africa's Best Chance to Achieve the Health Targets of Agenda 2030 Sustainably?

Of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals 2030, SDG 3 relates specifically to health and is framed in deliberately broad terms to be relevant to all countries and populations. It aims to 'ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all ages'. Health target 3.8, one of thirteen health targets associated with SDG 3, speaks directly to Africa's experience with pharmaceuticals and public health. This article considers whether foreign direct investment (FDI) offers the best chance for the attainment of these targets - and concludes that it does not. Engaging the critical lens of third world approaches to international law (TWAIL), this article argues for the recalibration of Africa's approach to Agenda 2030 through nuanced engagement with the right to health. It suggests that a uniquely African perspective needs to inform Africa's approach to FDI, one that takes account of the peculiar needs of African people in the area of health by cultivating African human capital and entrepreneurial potential as a viable alternative to FDI. Strengthening local capital in this manner offers a better chance for sustainably achieving the health targets of SDG 3.