About
13 April, 10:00 - 11:30 am (CET)
About
On 17-18 February 2022, the sixth European Union-African Union Summit took place in Brussels, Belgium. The spectre of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to dominate political proceedings, and ‘fair and equitable access to vaccines’ was a key pledge by policymakers, with the EU, amongst other measures, reaffirming a commitment to supply 450 million vaccination doses to Africa. Despite some steps forward, many of the root causes driving equitable access to vaccines and healthcare across the continent continue.
For instance, under pressure from European pharmaceutical companies, the EU continues to resist waiving intellectual property rights (TRIPS) for COVID 19 vaccines, therapeutics and diagnosis, which could help increase global manufacturing especially within the African continent. While the EU has supported a leaked "compromise" text, experts view the proposal as potentially more harmful as it could add new restrictions to COVID-19 authorisations and existing TRIPS flexibilities. Meanwhile, the immediate travel restrictions to South Africa and its neighbouring States, due to the former’s reporting of the new Omicron variant constituted an example of the continuing double standards towards African expertise and experience, what South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called ‘a slap in the face’. The challenges related to health provision are not limited to COVID-19 and are also indicative of structural inequalities. For example, despite having 25% of the global disease burden, only 1.1% of global investment is spent on health research and development in Africa. A consequence of such reduced investment has led to an increased risk of a ‘brain-drain’ of talented African scientists to other parts of the world, and a reduced level of preparedness to respond to future pandemics such as COVID-19.
Given that these ever-present health challenges are becoming a priority for policymakers following the pandemic, this event seeks to explore some of these challenges to health provision in Africa and how they intersect with political priorities. It intends to explore this through the lens of trans-continental Europe-Africa cooperation, with an aim to propose targeted initiatives that the EU, through its cooperation with the AU, could use to better meet the mutual health objectives of both partners in a sustainable, and long-term way. Finally, it also aims to ask the difficult yet important question of how Europe can better reframe its attitude towards Africa vis a vis healthcare to move towards more effective and productive cooperation in the future.
Speakers
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Asil Sidahmed, BIC Strategic Advisor and Analyst for Africa, former Advisor to Minister of Health of Sudan
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Inma Vazquez, Representative for the EU and NATO at Médecins sans Frontières (MSF)
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Jens Pedersen, Independent Consultant at Africa First Advisory
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Gabriella Fesus, Head of Unit Social Inclusion, Protection, Health and Democracy at the European Commission
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