Economic interventions for lifecourse brain health in Africa

Abstract

Brain health is central to Africa’s development, but current financing and policy frameworks remain poorly matched to the scale and distribution of need. Upstream economic risks, such as poverty, inequality, food insecurity, unemployment and fiscal constraints, shape neurodevelopment and later-life vulnerability through linked pathways, including prenatal stress, undernutrition, disrupted schooling, chronic psychosocial stress and reduced access to prevention and care. A lifecourse policy package can build brain capital through cash transfers, school feeding programmes, unemployment grants, social pensions and sovereign debt relief. These levers can improve brain health by stabilizing household resources, enabling investments in education and healthcare, lowering stress exposure and supporting cognitive reserve and resilience. Drawing on comparative lessons from Latin America, we propose an integrated, culturally responsive and intergenerational agenda that embeds social welfare policies into brain health promotion strategies to interrupt the transmission of economic risk across generations.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful for funding from the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative. A.I. is supported by grants from the Multi-Partner Consortium to Expand Dementia Research in Latin America (ReDLat2, supported by Fogarty International Center (FIC), National Institutes of Health, National Institutes of Aging (R01 AG057234, R01 AG075775, R01 AG21051, R01 AG083799, CARDS-NIH, R01 AG057234), Alzheimer’s Association (SG-20-725707), Rainwater Charitable Foundation—the Bluefield project to cure FTD and Global Brain Health Institute); ANID/FONDECYT Regular (1250091 and 1210176 and 1220995); ANID/PIA/ANILLOS ACT210096; JPI JPND-Care, DISCeRN 2025—Health and Social Care Research with a Focus on the Moderate and Late Stages of Neurodegenerative Diseases; FONDEF ID20I10152 and ANID/FONDAP 15150012; Wellcome Trust award for BRAIN-CLIMA: Investigating the Combined Impact of Heat and Air Pollution on Blood–Brain Barrier Integrity and Brain Aging in Latin America (335293/Z/25/Z), Wellcome Leap CARE Program (grant CARE-2025-0883490149) for the project Advancing Female-Specific Predictive Models and Risk Assessment Tools for Alzheimer’s Disease in the US and Latin America, and CliCBrain (Horizon ID 101236426; DOI 10.3030/101236426, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions—MSCA). The contents of this publication are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not represent the official views of these institutions. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript. J.E.A. and S.A. are supported by the Canada Research Chairs Program. The contents of this publication are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not represent the official views of this institution.

Authors and Affiliations

Contributions

C.M. conceptualized the paper. C.M. wrote the first draft. All other authors contributed to strengthening C.M.’s conceptual article by providing modern literature on brain health arising from their respective countries. C.M., J.M., T.A. and D.A. constructed the figures. C.M. and D.A. developed the tables. C.M., C.U.-M., J.E.A. and A.I. revised the draft. All authors edited the manuscript.

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Mostert, C.M., Udeh-Momoh, C., Cotter, E. et al. Economic interventions for lifecourse brain health in Africa.
Nat. Health (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44360-026-00175-1

• Version of record:27 July 2026

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  :https://doi.org/10.1038/s44360-026-00175-1