Posted on: Thu 27-02-2025

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and Global Health European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership 3 (Global Health EDCTP3) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to reinforce their collaboration in strengthening health research, clinical trials, and pandemic preparedness across the continent.

The MoU builds on a well-established partnership and comes at a time of increasing global health challenges, including climate change, ongoing conflicts, and constrained financial resources for public health.

In the MoU, the Africa CDC and Global Health EDCTP3 expressed their commitment towards joining efforts and maintaining a close and continuous relationship for the achievement of their common objectives.

Executive Director of Global Health EDCTP3, Dr Michael Makanga, said that the MOU is a renewed partnership between Africa CDC and Global Health EDCTP3 and a bold step towards strengthening Africa’s health research, clinical trial ecosystems, and pandemic preparedness.

He said: “By investing in African-led solutions, we are not only enhancing our continent’s capacity to respond to health threats but also paving the way for sustainable, homegrown innovations that will transform public health.

“Through this MoU, we reaffirm our commitment to advancing research, training the next generation of African scientists, and expanding local manufacturing of vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics. The future of Africa’s health security depends on partnerships like this—driven by collaboration, equity, and shared purpose.”

On his part, the Director-General of Africa CDC, Dr Jean Kaseya, noted that the signing of the MoU marks a significant step forward in ensuring that African-led public health initiatives receive the necessary technical and financial support to drive sustainable impact.

He stated that as Africa faces evolving health challenges, the reinforced partnership between Africa CDC and Global Health EDCTP3 will play a pivotal role in enhancing preparedness and response efforts.

The new agreement introduces a structured Joint Action Plan (2025-2027) with six key areas of collaboration including strengthening the public health workforce in sub-Saharan Africa, through health research capacity building and training of researchers, as well as strengthening AU member States’ clinical trials ecosystems.

It will also advance the clinical development and research on new or improved interventions against infectious diseases prevalent across AU Member States; supporting capacity-building activities that are linked to research and innovation, as well as regulatory pathway strengthening, enabling the expansion of local manufacturing of vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics in Africa.

The organisations will cooperate to implement a programme of work for the execution of activities in alignment with the strategic priorities of each organisation, while a joint action plan will serve as a framework for resource mobilisation. They are also committed to exploring synergies between public and private investments to enhance research, manufacturing, and capacity-building efforts across the continent.

SOURCE: GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER

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