Morocco calls on Africans to take control of instruments of their health sovereignty
Morocco has called on Africans to take control of the instruments of their health sovereignty, especially so as the continent has all necessary human resources.
The call was launched by Morocco’s Minister of Youth, Culture, and Communication, Mohamed Mehdi Bensaid, at the opening Wednesday in Sale, Rabat’s twin city, of the 8th General Assembly of the Alliance of African and Atlantic Press Agencies (FAAPA), held under the theme “African News Agencies, levers to advance the continent’s health sovereignty”.
“In a turbulent world, it is up to us Africans to take in hand the instruments of our health sovereignty. We have all the human resources to do so: African doctors, paramedics, biologists and researchers fill Western hospitals, universities and research laboratories,” said Bensaid.
These resources are waiting for their home countries to offer them the conditions to exercise their vocation, he said recalling that this is “the ambition of the African Academy of Health Sciences (AAHS), launched last November in Dakhla, by the Mohammed VI Foundation for Science and Health.”
The official noted that the Academy is considered as “a milestone and the foundation of our African ambition to bring together in Dakhla, the Sahel’s window on the Atlantic, the African human skills of today and tomorrow, to build the multidimensional continental sovereignty to which we all aspire.”
In this regard, he stressed that there is no sovereignty when health is delegated to others, noting that the integrated health model, as desired by King Mohammed VI for the Continent, cannot exist and be consolidated without training, exchanges and synergies between African nations.
Bensaid highlighted the “decisive” role of African press agencies in connecting this collective dynamic that is “our continent, full of potential.”
In this context of African emergence on the world stage, the role of communication, media, journalism, and the press is fundamental, he added.
“Long monopolized by external discourses on Africa, we are now able to write our vision on ourselves. This reappropriation of the word is as important as the reappropriation of oceanic space, or of our independent presence on the global stage,” Bensaid insisted.
Morocco aims to be, more than ever, a player in African sovereignty, and a window for African partners. The continent’s most precious asset is its youth, increasingly educated, increasingly connected and now eager to express their own views, and no longer content to be merely consumers of foreign media, he stated further.
Referring to the role of African press agencies in consolidating the continent’s sovereignty, the minister noted that FAAPA had grown over the years to include a growing number of members, as well as observers representing press agencies in partner areas (the Mediterranean, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, the Islamic world).
“This undeniable success confirms our conviction that the alliance of African and Atlantic press agencies will give our peoples and nations greater strength and weight on the international stage.”
“Ten years ago, the Atlantic Federation of African Press Agencies was founded in Casablanca. The FAAPA name alone is a symbol and a banner, that of an Africa emancipated from its imaginary fetters, which is appropriating what rightfully belongs to it, namely its oceanic horizon, its sovereign presence in maritime globalization, on its own terms, and according to its values, history and aspirations,” he added.
Taking the floor, Ivorian Minister of Communication Amadou Coulibaly said African press agencies must play a key role in promoting African initiatives in the field of health, by publicizing discoveries and work of the continent’s researchers.
Strengthening press agencies’ capacities in science and health journalism is an essential requirement for specialization, he said.
Highlighting the relevance of the chosen theme of this event, he praised the premonitory and enlightened vision of King Mohammed VI in the health field, and welcomed the creation of the African Academy of Health Sciences (AAHS) in Dakhla, whose main mission, he said, lies in promoting federative South-South cooperation, and mobilization for African health sovereignty.
The Ivorian minister also called for pooling health information by setting up a network of exchanges between African press agencies, noting that this is “a reality that is becoming more and more essential in view of crisis periods that we have gone through and will always go through.”
The impact of social networks and the risks of misinformation further reinforce the importance of press agencies, recognized as “safeguards” of local information, he stressed, adding that the recent COVID-19 health crisis has created a major flow of content, making it imperative to have safe media offering reliable information, produced according to the rules of ethics and press deontology.
In this regard, “press agencies must become solid ramparts against the spread of false information, in particular by developing fact-checking services and by contributing to raising public awareness of the responsible use of social media,” noted the Ivorian official.
The Atlantic Federation of African Press Agencies (FAAPA) is a professional platform bringing together around thirty press agencies and observer members. Its mission is to promote cooperation and the exchange of experience between African press agencies in all areas of mutual interest, including information dissemination, training, digital and multimedia products.
