The Sunday Mail
Roselyne Sachiti in Nairobi KENYA
Africa must expand local manufacturing of health products and increase domestic resources to ensure access to vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and other critical medical supplies, a senior Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) official said yesterday.
Speaking at the launch of Developing Excellence in Leadership, Training, and Science in Africa – DELTAS Africa II launch here, CDC Senior Science Officer Ms Shingai Machingaidze said the continent accounts for only 3 percent of global pharmaceutical manufacturing. However, she said, about 70 – 80 percent of medicines in Sub- Saharan Africa are imported.
“Africa manufactures less than 1 percent of the vaccines administered on the continent, but consumes around 25 percent of the world’s vaccines.
“Initiatives such as the Partnership for African Vaccine Manufacturing (PAVM) are working to enable African countries to plan, develop, and produce more than 60 percent of the total human vaccine doses required on the continent by 2040, she said.
She urged African countries to increase domestic resources for health and investments in local expertise, technical resources, and institutions, as well as innovative financing mechanisms and public-private partnerships.
“Heads of State and Government at the AU Summit in February 2022 agreed to upgrade the AU COVID-19 Response Fund to the Africa Epidemics Fund and to develop a mechanism to ensure the replenishment for future pandemic preparedness.
“Issues of domestic financing for health have been discussed for many years, with several continental agreements being put in place by African leaders,” she added.
These, she noted, include the 2001 Abuja Declaration, 2007 AU commitment to spending 1 percent of GDP on research and development expenditure and the 2008 Bamako Call to Action for Health where countries committed 2 percent of national health budgets to research.
However, she revealed, the challenge remains accountability in meeting the commitments.
She further called on African countries and development partners to build respectful, action- oriented, and sustainable partnerships that promote country ownership and African health priorities.
“Africa CDC partnered with the Mastercard Foundation in a $1.5 billion multi-year grant to bolster our response to the COVID-19 Pandemic under the Saving Lives and Livelihoods programme.
“Despite not meeting our 70 percent vaccination target by December 2022, we acknowledge the great progress we have made to reach about 50 percent Covid-19 vaccine on the continent,” added Ms Machingaidze
Africa CDC, she noted, was leading the implementation of the New Public Health Order for Africa, which is actively tackling health challenges and planning for the future, shaped by local leadership and regional solutions.
“It aims to ensure that effective health systems exist before a crisis and remain resilient during and post-crisis.
“We must strengthen public health institutions at the continental, regional, and national levels. Continental institutions such as the Africa CDC, the African Medicines Agency and AUDA-Nepad serve a key coordinating function.
“National Public Health Institutes are central to managing disease threats and Africa CDC continues to support NPHIs as well as the establishment and operationalisation of public health emergency operation centers (PHEOCs).”
She said the strengthening of the public health workforce and creation of career pathways that retain trained staff on the continent who can respond to disease threats while delivering essential services simultaneously was important.
A total of 14 research projects from across Africa, including Zimbabwe’s African Mental Health Research Initiative (AMARI) led by Professor Dixon Chibanda were announced as grant winners during the DELTAS Africa ll launch.
Ms Machingaidze congratulated the grant winners and applauded the work of the Science for Africa Foundation (SFA) through initiatives such as DELTAS Africa which are contributing to the efforts to successfully achieve the New Public Health Order for Africa.
“SFA Foundation convenes African experts to identify and define Africa’s scientific priorities to enable investment for maximum impact for communities and in accelerating Africa’s growth. SFA Foundation supports environments in which scientists work to enable science to thrive.”
She commended the DELTAS Africa programme which also seeks to amplify the development of African world-class researchers and scientific leaders on the continent, while strengthening African institutions.
“They support African researchers and their institutions to produce locally and globally relevant and high- quality health research that will lead to improved health science, policy and practice across Africa.”
