Page 49 - Diplomatists Nov

S PEC IAL REPOR T
Ramaphosa, saddled as he is with putting into
effect an economic recovery prior to the onset of the
pandemic. As such, Ramaphosa’s establishing of an
inter-ministerial ‘command council’ that imposed
a phased lockdown on the country interacted with
his launching of the Africa Medical Supplies
Platform operating in tandem with the existing
Africa Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. challenges reflecting what is emerging as a global supply
African Medical Supplies Platform
The launching of the Medical Supplies Platform
was seen as marking “the turning point the
continent needs, not only as it fights the fallout of
Covid-19, but in the future too,” with Ramaphosa
touting it as “the potential Amazon or Alibaba
for resources to mitigate the coronavirus on the
continent” as the platform has been set up as a
Extraordinar y and Plenipotentiar y Diplomatist • V ol 8 • Issue 9 • November 2020, Noida • 49
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 8 • Issue 9 • November 2020, Noida • 49
one-stop-shop to address shortages and security of supply.
The platform has pledged to ensure price competitiveness and
transparency in procurement. As such, it creates an opportunity
for the continent to work, post-covid, towards a lasting solution
of pooled procurement, which would increase the availability
of important health technologies, including drugs, vaccines and
diagnostics. In short, the Medical Supplies Platform working
in tandem with Africa CDC has the potential to address
chain and distribution complexities caused by the pandemic.
In this regard, Africa will have to rely on building up its own
infrastructure of resilience in the health sector. And in so doing,
demonstrate how Africa can overcome its fragmentation in
sharing and pooling sovereignty in other areas of cooperation
beyond health.
Africa CDC
In this regard, the role of the Africa CDC warrants
mentions as the Pan-African centerpiece of the continent-wide
infrastructure. Africa CDC was launched in January 2017 as
a public health agency of the AU after being established in
2016 by the 26th Ordinary Assembly of AU Heads of State and
Government with a mandate to work with member states, the
World Health Organization (WHO) and partners to strengthen
capacity in four strategic priority areas, including health-related
surveillance and information systems; functional and linked
clinical and public health laboratory networks; support for
member states’ emergency preparedness and response plans;
and strengthening of public health science for improved
decision making and practice.
The importance of these terms of reference is that given
the nature of disease outbreaks to transcend national and
territorial boundaries among countries that are, in reality,
more interdependent and genuinely independent, pandemic
challenges like Covid-19 demand a continental and regional
response. Hence, the pandemic has marked a coming of age
of the African CDC augmented by the Medical Supplies
Platform. Other African institutions have joined this eff ort
as well. Along with the aid from the World Bank Group, the
African Development Bank (AfDB) which works in close
conjunction with the AU Commission and the UN Economic
Commission for Africa, has unveiled a $10 billion response
facility to support member states and the African private and
nongovernmental sector in meeting the pandemic challenge
while launching a $3 billion Fight COVID-19 social bond. It is
against the backdrop of this mobilization of resources and the
continental and regional infrastructure reflected in the Africa
CDC and Medical Supplies Platform that Africa has managed
to cope with the pandemic through continental and regional
cooperation.
*Author is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for
Global Dialogue associated with the University of South Africa.