Perspectives on Health Literacy from Africa: Evolutionary Learning Health Literacy Systems Laboratory (ELHLS Lab) for Control of Diseases in Childhood and Adolescence in Africa

Health literacy remains an underutilized tool in Africa to curb prevalent, emerging, and re-emerging diseases, especially considering the comparatively poor socio-economic factors and poor health infrastructure. Individual and community health literacies in Africa are complex constructs influenced by levels of formal education, socio-economic determinants, community support (including distributive health literacy), and access to services (including the extent to which organizations are health literacy responsive). This chapter presents a discrete descriptive summary of health literacy in Africa indicative across the 54 member states with a focus on health literacy in children and adolescents, as these constitute about 60% of Africa’s population. The development of a model called Evolutionary Learning Health Literacy Systems Laboratory (ELHLS Lab) for the control of diseases in childhood and adolescence in Africa is discussed as a strategy for accelerating health literacy in Africa.