2025 UHC Day Champion
Michael Kakande
Founder and Chairperson of Resilient40 (Pan African Youth network), Uganda
Browse other champions
- Countries driving UHC progress
- Dr. Ricardo Baptista Leite, Founder and President of UNITE - Parliamentarian’s Network for Global Health
- Dr. Viroj Tangcharoensathien, Vice Chair and Senior Advisor, International Health Policy Program Foundation, Thailand
- Solange Mbaye, Regional Programme Manager for Amref Health Africa, Senegal
- Levy Mkandawire, Programme Manager for Amref Health Africa, Zambia
- Concepta Kwaleyela, President of the Midwives Association of Zambia
- Professor Anne Beatrice Kihara, Former President of the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Kenya
- Hester Mkwinda Nyasulu, Country Manager for Amref, Malawi
- Habibou Ouedraogo, Health Economist, Ministry of Health, Burkina Faso
- Hon. Hyun-Young Shin, Congresswoman, 21st National Assembly of Republic of Korea
We cannot achieve universal health coverage without confronting the climate and economic injustices that push communities into vulnerability. When climate shocks destroy livelihoods and health systems, the right to affordable, quality care becomes impossible to realise.
UHC demands climate resilience, fair financing, and justice—because protecting people’s health begins with protecting their future.
Michael Kakande is the founder and chair of Resilient40, a pan-African youth network dedicated to advancing climate justice and economic justice across the continent. He has worked tirelessly to strengthen financial protection for health by demonstrating how climate shocks, economic vulnerability, and inequitable financing directly undermine progress toward universal health coverage (UHC). Through his advocacy, he consistently highlights the inseparable links between health, climate resilience, and the right to affordable care, calling for debt cancellation, equitable climate finance, and structural reforms that enable vulnerable African communities to access resilient health and social systems.
In a landmark move, Michael co-led a petition to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights—together with the African Climate Platform, Natural Justice, and others—requesting an advisory opinion on states’ human-rights obligations amid the climate crisis. The petition seeks legal recognition of duties under the African Charter, particularly the rights to health, life, housing, and development, reinforcing the imperative for governments to protect people from the combined impacts of climate and health system fragility.
Michael’s leadership and impact have been widely recognized. On 1 January 2025, he was named by New African magazine as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Africans in the Civil Society category for elevating youth voices, advancing global climate finance debates, and mobilizing communities across Africa. He has also been recognized by the UNFCCC COP Presidency as one of their Impact Makers, a select group of individuals who have amplified vulnerable and community voices within climate and health decision-making processes regionally and globally.
