Ahead of Nigeria’s 2023 general elections, Dr Ebere Okereke, Senior Technical Adviser, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI), says political manifestos must consider healthcare priorities in Nigeria.
Okereke, who is also a Public Health Expert, spoke on Tuesday at a virtual Policy Forum, with the theme “An African Agenda to Epidemic Preparedness and Response.”
She said that politicians should recognise that health is more than National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
“With improvements in life expectancy flatlining and health inequalities widening, improving public health and prevention should be a high priority.
“Any politician that is serious about improving health would prioritise the public health, leveraging on lessons learned from the COVID-19.
“But genuinely supporting population health and wellbeing requires more.
“If a politician wants to see people’s health improve, Nigerians need to see bold action, using all the levers politicians have at their disposal to improve the health and wellbeing of the population,” she advised.
She said to really shift the dial, manifestos could exemplify a ‘health in all policies approach, look out for commitments to improve, support the best health systems for the children and more besides’.
“Finally, the health and care systems need clarity and certainty on funding, and all the parties must be clear about how much money they will provide for the NHIS, social care, public health, the workforce, and capital budgets.
“It’s right that the public should be able to understand and compare these commitments,” she said.
Sharing her reflections on Africa’s response and preparedness for future epidemics and pandemics, she said in Africa, 20 per cent of the health systems investment comes from aid – that was not sustainable.
“It’s been 21 years since the Abuja declaration. We need to stop seeing health as an expenditure and start seeing it as an investment.
“Africa’s health over relies on aid. Governments and the private sector have to step up and increase public health expenditure; it is an investment.
“Citizens must hold them to account and confirm that investments go where they are needed,” she urged the continent,” she said.
Responding to a question on what is the role of the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention’s in vaccine manufacturing on the continent, she said; “The Africa-CDC led initiative Partnership for Accelerating Vaccine Manufacturing (PAVM) focuses on creating an enabling environment to support the manufacture of vaccine products in Africa.
Dr Fiona Braka, Team Lead, Emergency Operations, World Health Organisation (WHO),
said that the COVID19 pandemic has been a wake-up call to revamp the continent’s health capacities.
Braka said that political leaders must work on strengthening all pillars of the health system, especially the role of national public health institutes.
She said a skilled public health workforce would need to be underpinned by strong public health institutions with the ability to attract and retain a strong public health workforce.
Dr Noella Bigirimana, Deputy Director-General, Rwanda Biomedical Centre, a national health implementation agency in Rwanda, said that Africa has to keep strengthening health capabilities and capacities and not wait for a pandemic to hit.
“Rwanda has been so good at the uptake of health-technology because Health is seen as a priority and the Creation of silos is avoided. Instead, one intervention builds on another, based on identified community needs.
“Pandemic preparedness is a global public good, not one country can achieve this by itself. In Rwanda, we are focused on vaccine manufacturing, strong leadership, and commitment,” Bigirimana said.
She stressed that African leaders need to keep strengthening Africa’s capabilities.
“Rwanda for example, is building capacity on mRNA vaccine manufacture – not just for Rwanda, but serving the continent,” she stressed.
Prof. Francisca Mutapi, a Professor in Global Health Infection and Immunity, said that Lack of vulnerability is not the same as preparedness.
“Mutapi, who is also a co-Director of the Global Health Academy at the University of Edinburgh, said countries outside Africa that scored high in preparedness, were still hit hard by COVID-19.
“In Africa, we need to engage with relevant sectors to both reduce vulnerability and strengthen preparedness.
“Preparedness is not the same thing as vulnerability. We must not lose what Africa does best, in an attempt to copy the approaches of others,” she advised.
She disclosed that the COVID-19 vaccine uptake went up to about 70 per cent in Mauritius because they built strong health systems even before the pandemic.
Also speaking, Dr. Carolyn Reynolds, Expert Advisor and co-founder of Pandemic Action Network, said that Pandemics do not recognise borders.
Reynolds said that Investments in pandemic preparedness benefit all, no matter where people live.
She said it is important to mobilise politicians and financial support to a global fund on pandemic preparedness.
According to her, “We have partnered with the Future Africa Forum on this initiative not only because there are opportunities to strengthen Africa’s pandemic resilience, but because of the strong regional collaboration observed in the continent and the leadership of institutions like Africa CDC.
Dr. Meggie Mwoka, a global health specialist, stressed that health workers have proven to be the backbone of effective responses.
Mwoka noted that improvements to future interventions have to be taken into account the specific needs and contributions of researchers, technicians, nurses, doctors, and community health workers.
Speaking on public health financing to prepare for future pandemics and epidemics in Africa, she said governance with financing lacks teeth, and financing without governance lacks accountability.
Dr. Michel Sidibe, Africa Union Special Envoy for Africa Medicine Agency, said that as long as Africans rely on high-income country manufacturers for vaccines and medicines, they would always be second in line.
According to Sidibé, “We experienced this with HIV. We waited seven years to make the drugs available to poor citizens. We need to rethink our models,” he advised.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the virtual forum was organised by the Africa Pandemic Resilience initiative, a partnership between Future Africa Forum and Pandemic Action Network.
It aspires to build a robust, resilient African health security architecture that can efficiently respond to future pandemics through active and proactive engagement with governments, decision-makers, and other critical stakeholders, including the private sector.
The initiative was designed to engage governments and policy decision-makers to preemptively set up systems that will ensure Africa is more prepared to respond to the pandemic threat.
