HEADS of State and Government, health ministers and experts, policy makers and development partners have met in Accra with a resolve to advance the continent’s health agenda, focusing on ending AIDS and tuberculosis by 2030, reducing maternal mortality, and boosting local pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Among the attendees were Presidents John Dramani Mahama, Ghana; Évariste Ndayishimiye, Burundi; Samia Suhulu Hassan, Tanzanian; Romuald Wadagni, Benin; Temesgen Tiruneh, Deputy Prime Minister, Ethiopia; Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General, World Health Organisation; and Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, Chairperson, AU Commission amongst others.
At the end of the two-day summit, the delegates are expected to adopt a fully- costed continental roadmap to accelerate progress toward the agenda.
High on the agenda was the urgent need for local pharmaceutical manufacturing, diversified sustainable health financing, and resilient community-centered primary healthcare.
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A declaration to monitor and evaluate a framework to ensure member states tracked progress on endemic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) is also expected to be adopted.
Opening the summit yesterday, President John Dramani Mahama appealed to the delegates to make the expected declarations become a living commitment rather than another well-written document.
“We must hold ourselves accountable through regular monitoring, peer review and measurable progress,” President Mahama said.
Africa, President Mahama indicated, has matured to the point where it can confidently evaluate its own performance without external supervision.
“The people of Africa may never read the declarations we adopt here, but they must experience their impact in better hospitals, reliable medicines, efficient clinics and healthier lives. They must see the difference in mothers smiling with healthy children, patients receiving timely treatment and communities enjoying stronger health systems,” President Mahama urged.
With global funding for health dropping, Mr Mahama said Africa could no longer afford to remain a passive beneficiary of global health systems designed elsewhere but become the architects of its own health destiny.
To this end, he said the pharmaceutical manufacturing plan for the continent through the African Medicines Agency was moving from treaty commitments to practical implementation that would strengthen pharmaceutical regulation across the continent.
The Director General of the WHO, Dr Ghebreyesus commended the continent for making “extraordinary progress” in combating HIV/AIDS with infections dropping by 40 per cent since 2010.
Dr Ghebreyesus said as external funding declines, Africa still bears a heavy burden as it risks losing grounds in the fight against the disease and others.
In the view of the WHO boss, treating disease alone is not enough but tackling what drives it like conflict, poverty, poor education, unsafe water and gender inequality remains critical as the combat.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, in a speech on his behalf underscored the importance of Africa in the fight against global health threats as none could be contained without Africa.
He advocated closing the inequality gap in financing, innovation and human rights and gender.
“If we close these inequality gaps, we’ll build a stronger, fairer and a more resilient system for health better prepared for the next pandemic. Epidemics thrive on inequality and we end epidemics by closing inequality gaps,” he said.
