Opening remarks by the Regional Director, Dr Matshidiso Moeti
Honourable Chairperson,
Honourable Ministers,
I’d like to recognize the presence and participation of our WHO Special Envoy for COVID-19, Dr John Nkengasong, who is also the Director of the Africa CDC and I think we also have Dr Samba Sow from Mali, who is also a WHO Special Envoy for COVID-19. Thanking them for their contribution to our strategizing in WHO.
Distinguished delegates, partners, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,
I thank all of you for joining us today from across Africa and around the world for this special event on the COVID-19 pandemic.
I would like to thank His Excellency, President Alassane Ouattara for his encouragement for this discussion. I believe his contribution will be communicated by the Honourable Minister of Health.
So, while COVID-19 cases and deaths in Africa, remain lower than on other continents, several countries are experiencing a resurgence of the epidemic. We’ve had three waves now and anticipating or probably going in for a fourth wave later in the year.
Our continent hasn’t experienced the devastation predicted initially by models, but there has been a high price paid in economic, educational and other sectoral impacts. It has been devastating for low-income households and vulnerable groups and particularly for women. This impact will multiply many times, the longer inequity in access to vaccines persists.
I would like to recognize and commend the swift action and very tough decisions taken by governments, particularly early on in the pandemic, and the drive to procure essential supplies using all possible means which continues today with regards to vaccines.
The African Union and the Africa CDC are playing key roles and we’ve been very pleased to work closely with them.
I also want to appreciate the generosity and solidarity of partners, including high-income countries, in supporting the ACT Accelerator platform of WHO as an initiator and its COVAX Facility, as well as the support of partners to WHO’s work on emergencies in the African Region more generally.
We are seeing that past investments have paid off – emergency operations centres, national public health institutes, laboratory capacities for polio, for influenza and other diseases – all of these are contributing hugely in the COVID-19 response.
So far, as I said, we have experienced three waves, and expect that a fourth would probably come in at the end of the year which could be driven by the usual travel of people, celebrations and family get-togethers.
We have already witnessed limited adherence to public health and social measures, and we have seen increasing frustration and sometimes social unrest in some of our countries partly from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people’s livelihoods.
Health workers have been truly heroic in responding to COVID-19 – they have seen the destruction of this virus firsthand, they have lost colleagues, they have faced stigma, and are at heightened risk of infection and also of burn out.
Families, communities, their leaders, and volunteers have also stepped-up impressively with initiatives and support to people in the most difficult situations.
Countries have initiated some social safety nets which will hopefully inform future policy and action.
We can expect the social and economic repercussions of COVID-19 to be with us for some time to come, but there are several strategic actions that can be taken to mitigate these impacts and to build forward better.
The COVID-19 response has already provided important lessons to inform immediate priorities and longer-term approaches to fight priority disease and improve health outcomes.
These include the value of multisectoral coordination for health and of a rapid all-of-government and all-of-society response to health threats.
We know that outbreaks start and end in communities, and so they must be at the centre of our collective efforts. To accelerate the vaccine rollout and ensure that people implement the preventive measures, community understanding, and trust are vital. As WHO, we are working with governments and partners to leverage tools, such as social media, as it’s already been said, to boost vaccine confidence, in addition to engaging community leaders and networks to improve and sustain buy-in for the public health response.
We’ve seen the power of international scientific collaboration, and the incredible leaps in progress that can be achieved when significant resources are dedicated to research, development and innovation. We, however, have much to learn on how to share the benefits of these equitably, to protect the whole world. This is very much a hot work in progress.
Promising homegrown solutions have emerged, and more needs to be done to test, harness and promote these globally, including African traditional medicines and digital technologies.
COVID-19 has also reaffirmed starkly, the need for attention to equity, socio-economic development and justice in delivering health interventions and longstanding disparities in access to services and resources, faced by low-income households, by women, ethnic minorities and other marginalized groups, need to be addressed to reduce our collective vulnerability. And this is true in our Region and all around the world.
Despite global calls by WHO and other partners for equity across countries, the COVID-19 vaccine rollout has clearly demonstrated the huge gaps in international solidarity – 75% of all vaccine doses globally have been administered in just 10 countries. High-income countries have administered 62 times more doses than low-income ones.
Potentially worsening this divide, some wealthy countries are now advising their populations to get booster shots to sustain their immunity. However, as we have stated many times as WHO, we believe the priority should be for the most at-risk populations in all countries to be fully vaccinated, in order to have the greatest impact in curbing transmission, saving lives and bringing about an end to this pandemic as quickly as possible.
We have advocated for wealthy countries to share their doses, and activity in this area is now ramping up. Around eight million doses were received by African countries through the COVAX Facility in July, and an additional 520 million doses are expected to arrive before the end of 2021.
Getting these vaccines into people’s arms will be a complex undertaking. It will require countries to deploy multiple vaccines simultaneously, to monitor equitable uptake and coverage, and to report on progress rapidly to inform further shipments. So, urgent planning and support for vaccine delivery management is therefore required, with the involvement of WHO and other partners.
I encourage all governments to use the costing tools and financing mechanisms available to ensure there are adequate resources for the vaccine rollout and focus should also be maintained on longer-term priorities to build self-reliance on the continent, including by boosting local production of essential supplies, such as vaccines.
The pandemic has highlighted yet again, how critical and urgent accelerating increased investment in health is, bringing to the fore the decades long underinvestment in our health systems.
Ensuring every person who needs health care, can access it without financial hardship, remains our top priority at WHO. And this goal of achieving Universal Health Coverage, is closely intertwined with the needs to ensure emergency preparedness is enhanced, and response and the resilience of health systems and societies are improved.
With this background, this special event aims to spur action against COVID-19 in the immediate term, while also asking how we can collectively learn from COVID-19 and build more sustainable systems to prevent, detect and respond to health emergencies.
This is an opportunity to share experiences across countries on what is working, what needs to improve, and innovations that can enhance the response to this pandemic and prepare us for future acute health threats.
Framing our discussions are the ongoing global negotiations on a pandemic treaty which has already been discussed in the opening session, I would like to again call on all African Member States to engage actively in this global process. We must seize the moment in anticipation of other epidemics and crises in the future.
Global review groups have put forward more than 200 recommendations for restructuring pandemic preparedness and response at the global level. And together, we need to consider which recommendations will work best to safeguard health security and improve the lives of people in African countries.
We are committed to continuing to strengthen the national capacities called for under the International Health Regulations, so that they are functional and scalable when a pandemic occurs. And working with governments and partners we will strive to improve the institutions, systems, mechanisms, tools and networks must be put in place to help prevent, detect and respond rapidly to future pandemics. We are going through an extraordinary experience of intense learning, innovating, adapting and taking action.
I look forward to a rich discussion today and thank you very much once again for participating in this event.
As WHO, we remain committed to working with all of you, our Member States and partners, to promote health, to keep Africa safe, and serve the vulnerable.
Thank you.