APA-Johannesburg (South Africa) African health and business leaders have agreed to establish a collaborative African Union-BRICS framework of cooperation to help contain the spread of infectious diseases in the face of the growth in movement of persons between the two blocs.
In a dialogue session on Monday co-hosted by South Africa’s Ministry of Health, the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Africa Health Business and the South African chapter of the BRICS Business Council, delegates agreed on the need for an “actionable and implementable” framework for cooperation on pandemic, preparedness, prevention, response and recovery (3P2R) between the AU and BRICS.
The dialogue sought to come up with concrete proposals, drawing from the AU and BRICS collective experiences of dealing with COVID-19 and other pandemics, identifying the existing capabilities and acknowledging the gaps that would need to be closed for adequate pandemic preparedness and response.
The Ministry of Health said in a statement that participants at the Johannesburg dialogue session highlighted the reality that the the expanded BRICS family of more than 4.8 billion people or over half of the global population would present opportunities and challenges for both the AU and BRICS.
“Increasing human and animal interconnectedness, climate change and an increasing frequency of infectious disease outbreaks mean that the AU and BRICS’ ability to contain infectious diseases has a fundamental bearing on global health security,” the ministry said.
The BRICS grouping of the world’s largest emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – last week announced that it has accepted applications by six new members.
Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates officially become BRICS members from January 2024.
The dialogue – dubbed the “Johannesburg Process” – brought together current BRICS member states, Ethiopia, Egypt, business, civil society, development finance Institutions, global health agencies and AU specialised agencies such as the AU Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa’s Development, African Continental Free Trade Area.
In the interest of pursuing equitable and timeous access to medical countermeasures in the event of the next pandemic, participants acknowledged the merits of the “Johannesburg Process” in providing an informal platform for stakeholder engagements on an interim medical countermeasures’ coordination mechanism.
The “Johannesburg Process” was seen as an effective complementary tool contributing to the work of the World Health Organisation and other formal processes.
Participants were further encouraged by the collective capabilities identified in medical and digital technologies, human resource potential (particularly in Africa), and pharmaceutical manufacturing.
For instance, it was observed that the Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturing Network, which is made up of manufacturers from BRICS member states, contributed to 60 percent of the COVID-19 vaccine products.
The meeting considered the possibility of opening-up the entire expanded BRICS and AU market to all pharmaceutical manufacturers in the BRICS and AU regions.
“The COVID-19 pandemic exposed significant and vast global health inequities, particularly on the African continent and unnecessary lives and livelihoods were lost, with African post-pandemic economic recovery still proving to be challenging,” noted Stavros Nicolaou, member of the BRICS Business Council.
He added: “Collaborative efforts across the African and BRICS geographies can enhance surveillance, research, infrastructure and resource allocation to ensure a swift and coordinated response to future pandemics underpinned by a resilient African pandemic prevention, preparedness and recovery system.”
The dialogue noted the need for more work to diversify Africa’s manufacturing capacity for vaccines as well as to ensure that primary health care is fully developed as a foundation for pandemic preparedness.
JN/APA