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Addis Ababa, February 4, 2024 – A high-profile health mission, led by Belgian Minister for Development Cooperation Caroline Gennez and EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides, is set to visit Addis Ababa from February 5 to 7, 2024. The delegation, comprising high-ranking officials from eight European Union Member States, aims to reinforce the partnership between Africa and the EU, focusing on health and humanitarian aid.
Organized by the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union and the EU Delegation to the African Union, the mission follows up on the EU-AU summit of 2022 and aligns with the EU’s new Global Health Strategy. The delegation will engage in high-level meetings at the African Union Commission and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) to identify avenues for a stronger health partnership between the two regions.
One of the primary goals of the mission is to accelerate equal access to health, addressing the current healthcare disparity in Africa, where less than half of the population has access to necessary healthcare. The EU, leveraging its expertise and experience, aims to collaborate with African counterparts on various health topics, formalizing these partnerships during the mission and the AU-EU dialogue scheduled for March 2024 in Brussels.
The health mission recognizes the urgent need to enhance health infrastructure on the African continent. Presently, only 3% of pharmaceuticals are produced in Africa, despite the region bearing 24% of the global disease burden. The EU seeks to play a crucial role in building robust health systems, delivering better health outcomes, and addressing challenges related to climate change and emerging pandemics.
The European Health Mission underscores the commitment to the EU-AU Global Health Partnership, aligning with the New Public Health Order for Africa and the EU Global Gateway strategy. This includes initiatives like the Team Europe Initiative on manufacturing and access to vaccines, strengthening the capacities of Africa CDC, advancing digital health, and supporting evidence-based decision-making through Public Health Institutes.
The mission will also explore the establishment of the African Humanitarian Agency and address health crises in humanitarian contexts. Discussions will encompass challenges in International Humanitarian Law, access and protection, and forgotten crises on the African continent, laying the groundwork for further deliberation at the European Humanitarian Forum in Brussels in March 2024.
In a statement, Minister Caroline Gennez emphasized the importance of strengthening EU-Africa collaboration in health, stating, “Our focus will be on building affordable, available, and high-quality healthcare systems in African countries. We also reconfirm our commitment to support African governments, companies, and scientists in the production of high-quality medicines and vaccines.”
Commissioner Stella Kyriakides highlighted the significance of the EU’s new Global Health Strategy, stating, “Global health is now an essential pillar of our foreign policy, with the aim to deliver better health for millions, put the Sustainable Development Goals back on track, and strengthen health security in Africa, Europe, and the world.”
The European Health Mission sets the stage for the AU-EU partnership on global health high-level event scheduled for March 20, 2024, in Brussels, marking a crucial step towards achieving shared health objectives and fostering lasting collaboration between the two regions.
