The Kingdom called for the continent to have adequate and predictable funding for pandemic response preparedness, in order to promote good health governance and, therefore, Africa’s health sovereignty.
Advocacy: Morocco called, Thursday in Addis Ababa before the Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union (AU), to adopt a unified continental approach to pandemic preparedness, strengthening and recovery health systems in Africa.
During a meeting of the Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union (AU) on “Health Security and the Promotion of Peace and Security in Africa” chaired by the Ambassador Permanent Representative of the Kingdom to the AU and the UNECA, Mohamed Arrouchi, the Moroccan delegation stressed that health security and the promotion of peace and security are deeply interconnected and recalled that conflicts and instability can aggravate the problems public health.
In this regard, the Moroccan delegation called for adopting a unified continental approach to pandemic preparedness, strengthening and recovery of health systems in Africa, within the framework of a policy for “Preparation for the response against pandemics” of the AU (PRP), and strong African health diplomacy. The Moroccan delegation urged the AU Commission and international partners to make greater efforts to improve health systems in Africa, to promote research and development of vaccines, through the creation of regional African research centers to strengthen disease surveillance and response capacities, with a view to preparing for potential pandemic shocks. She also underlined the need to institutionalize the link between peace and health security, by scheduling, at least once a year, a PSC-CDC Africa meeting to take stock of the interconnection between the continent’s security and the health situation. which prevails there as well as the acceleration of the operationalization of the African Medicines Agency.
In this context, the Moroccan delegation launched an appeal to the AU Commission and international partners to deploy more efforts to face the challenges that remain in areas such as resource mobilization, development of health infrastructure to ensure equitable access to care across the continent and, in this regard, called for the continent to have adequate and predictable funding for pandemic response preparedness, in order to promote good governance health and, consequently, the health sovereignty of Africa. The Moroccan delegation reaffirmed that Morocco’s commitment to health security in Africa is constant by playing a crucial role in strengthening health systems, preventing and controlling diseases and, ultimately, improving the health and well-being of African citizens. In terms of strengthening health systems, the Kingdom has invested in human resources through the training of health professionals, active participation in platforms for sharing expertise and knowledge and regional health initiatives, and investment in the development of its own health infrastructures, by also developing those of other sister African countries within the framework of South-South cooperation, underlined the Moroccan delegation.
This article is originally published on aujourdhui.ma
