“While Covid-19 is a global health crisis, its impact goes far beyond the health sector, causing economic, political and societal disruption.”
This statement was made by World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during the the extraordinary China-Africa Summit teleconference this week.
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The summit was jointly proposed by China, South Africa, the rotating chair of the African Union (AU), and Senegal, the co-chair of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
“This requires a whole-of-society, whole-of-government response.”
He said the organisation is satisfied with the response from African nations and entrepreneurs to produce personal protective equipment and other commodities such as ventilators.
He said coordinated action is needed to respond to the pandemic.
“A fine example of this is how WHO and our GOARN network across 77 countries has worked closely with China CDC, Africa CDC and other partners to respond to the pandemic.
“Emergency medical teams from China have already been deployed to several countries across Africa.”
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He encouraged continued collaboration between China and Africa to strengthen health security in partnership with WHO and the international community.
He suggested six areas for this to be implemented:
- By working together to strengthen national capacities for training, sharing technical expertise, local production of personal protective equipment and technology transfer.
- Creating “twinning arrangements” between Chinese and African centres of excellence for research in public health.
- More collaboration and information sharing among African nations and with China to promote best practices from lessons learnt.
- Enhanced investment in pandemic preparedness.
- Taking concrete steps to support livelihoods and economic recovery, paying particular attention to the poorest, specifically the debt relief you have already committed to.
- Investing in stronger health systems, based on primary health care, which is critical not only for protecting nations from the impact of outbreaks, but also for building a platform for prosperity and building for the future.
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