BY ARTHUR GO MUTAMBARA
I AM currently in Nigeria, as part of a team setting up a vaccine research and development as well as a manufacturing plant.
This is proof of concept (a national launch pad) for a continental strategy to achieve equitable and universal access to essential vaccines and vaccination across Africa.
Health security determines national security. A health insecure Africa has no continental security. The public health of Africans cannot be left to depend on the benevolence and goodwill of nations external to the continent.
The journey to vaccine sovereignty and self-sufficiency has just begun. The target is not just Covid-19, but future pandemics and other diseases such as malaria, HIV/Aids and sickle cell anaemia.
The Covid-19 pandemic was a wake-up call for the continent. Never again should Africa be this exposed and vulnerable. Indeed, a crisis is too important an opportunity to waste.
As Africans, we must seize the moment and collectively take charge of our public health.
A broader issue is breaking Africa’s overdependence on donors in public health. How can this be done?
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African countries must spend 15% of the gross domestic product on public health as espoused in the Abuja Declaration.
There must be enhanced private sector participation in healthcare provision.
Governments must create an enabling environment for private sector involvement.
Yes, we must carry out research and development as well as manufacturing of medicines on the continent.
However, there must be clarity on and quantification of the return on investment for the research and development as well as manufacturing of medicines in Africa.
We must leverage African economies of scale.
Africans must be able to sell medicines (developed and manufactured on the continent) globally.
There is need to challenge the global public health political economy.
African funding of public health gives Africans control of public health policy, e.g, emphasis on preventative medicine (wellness) as opposed to curative medicine (disease management).
Yes, breaking the African public health over-dependence on donors is virtuous and can be done.
As we push for pharmaceutical research and development, as well as manufacturing in Africa, we are looking beyond Covid-19
We now know the extent of the fragility of our healthcare systems and their over-dependence on external players.
It might be too late for us to develop our own Covid-19 vaccines.
Probably, the most we can do is manufacture these vaccines using other folks’ API [active pharmaceutical ingredients], if they let us, which is very unlikely.
As a long term solution, we are focused on attaining vaccine sovereignty and self-sufficiency on the continent.
Our goal is never to allow ourselves to be this vulnerable and exposed. Never, ever.
As explained earlier, our targets are future pandemics and other infectious diseases such as malaria, HIV/Aids and sickle cell anaemia.
As we implement a continental and Pan-African vaccine strategy (starting with a research and development as well as a manufacturing plant in Nigeria), we do not expect any support from the Global North and its big pharmaceutical companies.
We will succeed in spite of their disposition.
There is potential to unlock synergies with vaccine producing countries in the Global South (such as China, India, Russia, Cuba and Brazil) by way of lessons learnt, partnerships and collaborations.
The long-term continental vaccine strategy is just but one aspect of asserting African agency in public health.
Arthur Mutambara is a former deputy prime minister of Zimbabwe
