18-Feb-2024
The African Union has resolved that by 2040, 60 percent of vaccines used in Africa will be produced locally.
While attending a meeting on vaccine manufacturing in Africa organized by the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, President William Ruto highlighted the need for African countries to manufacture vaccines to help stop various disease pandemics.
President Ruto revealed that most African countries got badly affected particularly during the Covid 19 pandemic witnessed globally where the Covid vaccines were on higher demand.
“The Covid-19 pandemic exposed the dire state of Africa’s pharmaceutical manufacturing, including that of vaccines. We were the last continent to access Covid-19 vaccines, and suffered greatly from ‘vaccine nationalism’,” He said.
The head of state noted that the African continent has the research capacity to manufacture vaccines.
“This is underpinned by our solid research capacity in vaccines. Kenya, for instance, participated in the Covid-19 vaccine trials,” revealed Ruto.
The meeting on vaccine manufacturing in Africa with the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia was also attended by various heads of states including President Mohamed al-Menfi (Libya) and Brahim Ghali (Sahrawi).
Others were Ahmed Hachani, Tunisia Prime Minister, IVI Director general Jerome Kim and Jean Kaseya, Director general of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa-CDC).
Read the original article on Capital FM.
37th AU Summit – African Union Takes Steps to Address Education Challenges in Africa
AU theme of the year: “Educate an African fit for the 21st Century: Building Resilient Education Systems for Increased Access to Inclusive, Lifelong, Quality, and Relevant Learning in Africa”.
The achievement of Aspiration 1 of Agenda 2063 for “A prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development” requires that Africa makes significant investments in education with the aim of developing human and social capital through an education and skills revolution emphasizing innovation, science, and technology.
Even with a substantial increase in the number of African children with access to basic education, a large number still remain out of school. This reality calls for concern.
There are many barriers to education for low-income households. The issue was raised in 2022 at global level by the UNSG, Antonio Guterrres during a Summit on Transforming Education, amidst many other serious global issues. The Summit pointed out that education is serious crisis, and progress towards the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal 4 on education (SDG4), needs to be enhanced. That is why the UNSG wanted to impulse “a one-in-a-generation” opportunity to address this global education crisis by renewing collective commitment and joint action.
The AU, through its Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA), is vying to expand access not just to quality education, but also to education that is relevant to the needs of the continent given that the continent’s population is rapidly increasing. The CESA aims to reorient Africa’s education and training systems to meet the knowledge, competencies, skills, innovation, and creativity required to nurture African core values and promote sustainable development at the national, sub-regional and continental levels.
The key objectives of CESA are to:-
Revitalize the teaching profession to ensure quality and relevance at all levels.
Expand access to quality education by building, rehabilitating, and preserving education infrastructure and developing policies that ensure a permanent, healthy and conducive learning environment in all sub-sectors.
Harness the capacity of ICT to improve access, quality and management of education and training systems.
Ensure acquisition of requisite knowledge and skills as well as improved completion rates at all levels and groups through harmonization processes across all levels for national and regional integration.
