AIDS Healthcare Foundation advocates unified bloc to secure continent’s health security
AFRICAN leaders have been urged to negotiate as a unified bloc to secure equitable access to vaccines and strengthen the continent’s health security.
The Executive Vice President of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), Dr Penninah Iutung, said Africa’s overreliance on vaccine imports amid global funding withdrawals made it imperative for the continent to bargain collectively for fair pricing, technology transfer and sustainable vaccine supply to avoid remaining disadvantaged in future public health emergencies.
“The global charity model is broken. Africa cannot beg its way out of a $43 per person deficit. Our leaders must negotiate as a bloc from now, or the continent will continue to import 99 per cent of its vaccines and 100 per cent of its poverty,” she said.
Dr Iutung was speaking at a high-level Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) webinar on health sovereignty ahead of the African Union (AU) Heads of State Summit scheduled for February 14 and 15, 2026.
The 39th Ordinary Session, to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is on the theme: “Assuring Sustainable Water Availability and Safe Sanitation Systems to Achieve the Goals of Agenda 2063.”
The AHF Executive Vice President described the situation in which more than half of African countries spend more on debt servicing than on life-saving medicines as “a moral indictment.”
She recalled that major outbreaks, including HIV, Ebola and COVID-19, had not only strained Africa’s health systems but also caused severe economic disruption.
In view of this, Dr Iutung called for stronger regional coordination under the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), expanded public-private investment in local pharmaceutical production, and unified continental negotiations for medicines, vaccines and related subsidies to protect populations.
She stressed that prioritising health security was essential for sustaining Africa’s economic progress, saying, “A healthy and productive Africa will sustain and elevate the economic gains already made.”
Dr Julius Simon Otim, Senior Health Officer for Medicines and Food Safety at the East African Community Secretariat, underscored the importance of collective regional action, particularly in medicines procurement.
He noted that pooled procurement would only succeed if countries build trust and align their systems toward a common regional goal.
The Executive Director of WACI Health, Rosemary W. Mburu, also called for the inclusion and integration of communities and civil society in decision-making processes around health.
“Sovereignty belongs to the people, and their voices should shape how health systems are financed and governed,” she stated.
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH
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