EU to support African Union’s initiative to boost continent’s health sovereignty

The European Union has pledged to support the African Union (AU) in its ambitious goal of producing 60% of vaccines on the continent for African citizens by 2040 — one of the key outcomes of a recent high-level conference marking the expansion of the strategic EU-AU health partnership.

The recent high-level event held in Brussels kicked off an expansion of the strategic EU-AU partnership, pledging joint commitments to strengthen global health and African health sovereignty. “Learning the lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic, the AU and the EU are committed to advance health systems and strengthen health capacities globally,” the European Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, said. “We are proud of the results achieved in increasing local manufacturing of medicines and vaccines in Africa, for Africa.” Most African countries are struggling to ensure sustainable and equitable access to the health products needed to meet the continent’s priority health needs.

In 2021, the AU set up the Partnership for Africa Vaccine Manufacturing (PAVM) structure to empower the Africa CDC, an autonomous body within the AU structures mandated with strengthening capacity of African countries to respond quickly and effectively to disease threat on the continent. One of its key achievements was a new public health order which seeks to increase the manufacture of vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics as one of the continent’s pillars to ensure the health security of the continent’s 1.4 billion people.

Urpilainen also noted that it was inspiring to see African-led projects beginning to really take off and Europe’s private sector extending their support, such as in the case of mRNA vaccine production in Rwanda.