Africa to hold health ownership event as aid shrinks

The African Union’s health agency has announced that it will hold a conference in Ethiopia aimed at strengthening Africa’s ability to produce vaccines and drugs amid a shrinking of global aid budgets.

The Conference on Public Health in Africa (CPHIA) was launched as a virtual event in 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, as thousands died while rich countries hoarded vital vaccine supplies.

Since then, international aid has dried up as the US, previously the world’s biggest overseas aid donor, withdrew its support for the World Health Organization and shuttered its overseas aid agency USAID.

CPHIA 2026, organised in partnership with the Ethiopian government under the theme Africa’s Health Security and Sovereignty: Transformation from health dependency and vulnerability, is aiming for 30,000 attendees, compared with 2,500 who attended the inaugural event.

“This platform provides an opportunity to influence evidence-based policy and shape strategies that will define the health security of Africa’s 55 AU [African Union] Member States,” said Raj Tajudeen, acting deputy director general of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).

Last year’s event, held in Durban, South Africa, resulted in the Durban Promise – a commitment from countries to use their funds and innovation capabilities to build Africa’s health systems and strengthen the continent’s ability to produce its own vaccines and drugs.

The meeting, which will be held in November this year in Addis Ababa, will bring political leaders, policymakers, private sector and community actors together with scientists and programme implementers, allowing them to share new scientific breakthroughs and discuss ways to build Africa’s health systems.

The conference is part of the African Union’s Africa Health Security and Sovereignty (AHSS) agenda, adopted by countries in February this year. The agenda calls for a continental pandemic monitoring and response capability, and for vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics to be manufactured in Africa.

Hadera Abera, Ethiopia’s foreign minister, said in a statement announcing the conference: “Today’s launch symbolises our determination to build a healthier and more resilient Africa.

 “CPHIA 2026 is necessary. It will help advance Africa from dependency to self-reliance, from vulnerability to resilience, and from fragmentation to coordinated continental action.”