Africa set to wage united fight against COVID-19

Single online platform helps countries on continent to buy medical supplies

Despite the rapidly increasing cases of coronavirus in Africa, the continent is fully committed to mitigating the devastating impacts of the pandemic through unified continental initiatives.

As part of the unified continental response to the pandemic, Cyril Ramaphosa, chairman of the African Union and president of South Africa, launched on April 19 the Africa Medical Supplies Platform.

The platform is a single online marketplace to enable the supply of coronavirus-related critical medical equipment in Africa.

It provides access to African and global base of vetted manufacturers and procurement strategic partners and enables AU member states to purchase certified medical equipment, such as diagnostic kits, personal protective equipment and clinical management devices, with increased cost effectiveness and transparency.

The platform serves as a unique interface, enabling volume aggregation, quota management and payment facilitation, as well as logistics and transportation, to ensure equitable and efficient access to critical supplies for African governments.

The African Export-Import Bank will facilitate payments while logistics partners, including African national carriers and global freight forwarders, will expedite delivery.

Strive Masiyiwa, AU special envoy, said they are already getting requests from other parts of the world to license the Africa Medical Supplies Platform concept.

"Africa is leading the way with this online solution to ensure all of our governments get access to personal protective equipment and other urgent medical supplies they need, at fair prices," Masiyiwa said.

John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said they are committed to providing market intelligence on where the manufacturers are, facilitating pooled procurement when financial resources are made available through the initiative, and distributing the products to respective African destinations.

Benedict Oramah, president of the African Export-Import Bank, said the initiative is important because the increasingly difficult global trade and financing environment would not only limit the potential of African countries to procure essential supplies, but could also limit their ability to scale up their production capacities.

"Our joint initiative with the (United Nations) Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union, through Africa CDC, is a proactive way to respond to the pandemic more effectively," he said.

"The African Export-Import Bank is also engaging its development partners in coronavirus response efforts to mobilize additional resources and technical assistance."

Vera Songwe, the executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, said the organization is engaging private sector stakeholders and governments to adopt policies to urgently bolster the production and supply chain of critical medical and associated resources that Africa needs to respond to coronavirus in a manner that promotes the economic and social development of the continent.

Through support from the commission, the continent is set to roll out a groundbreaking mobile-based public communications platform to provide more than 600 million users across the continent with the latest public health advice.

The Africa Communications Information Platform will also furnish national and regional coronavirus task forces with user-generated survey data and actionable health and economic insights.

By improving national data and statistics, the platform will enable authorities to better analyze pandemic-related problems and implement appropriate responses. It will allow coronavirus task forces to deploy health and economic resources to mitigate the pandemic's impact.

The platform will be launched at an online event hosted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa on Tuesday.

To address financing challenges, on Thursday, the Pan-African Parliament urged its members to ensure that AU member states allocate adequate funding to cater to healthcare systems when budgets are submitted to parliaments for consideration.

The call followed a briefing to members of the Pan-African Parliament committees on health and gender by the Africa CDC, which revealed that inadequate healthcare services impeded Africa's response to novel coronavirus during the early days of the spread of the global health threat.

The Africa CDC has described the continent's limited health budget, weak health facilities and shortage of health workers as hindrances in the fight against pandemics in general.

By Monday, the total number of coronavirus infections across Africa stood at 306,255 and 8,112 deaths according to the Africa CDC.

South Africa is the most affected country in the continent with 97,302 cases and 1,930 deaths followed by Egypt with 55,233 cases and 2,193 deaths. Seychelles is the least affected country with 11 recorded cases, all of whom have recovered.

edithmutethya@chinadaily.com.cn