Under the patronage of H.E. President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, the second edition of Africa Health ExCon successfully concluded after witnessing the wide participation of 800 representatives of medical entities in Egypt and across Africa.
The conference examined the tremendous challenges now facing the healthcare systems in African countries, among which are communicable and non-communicable diseases, epidemics, nutritional problems, as well as Covid-19 pandemic repercussions. This is in addition to the conference discussions about strengthening inter-African cooperation to ensure the accessibility of primary healthcare services, drugs, and vaccines to the population of the continent.
At the outset, the conference participants thanked H.E. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, President of the Republic of Egypt, for granting the conference and the other associated activities his esteemed patronage. They also appreciated that his excellency inaugurated Africa Health ExCon for the second consecutive year; in consequence, the event catalyzes the international community to focus on investing in the health sector in this continent, to be instilled as a top priority of Egypt’s political agenda, as reflected in keenness of the political leadership in Egypt on stimulating the inter- African cooperation ties and partnerships.
The Unified Procurement Authority also deserves a high commendation for the warm reception and professional event management. This is in addition to lauding Egypt’s experience in healthcare development, as one of the key pillars of all-inclusive and sustainable development.
We also extend our thanks to the African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, the WHO, as well as the Commission on African COVID-19 Response chaired by H.E. President Cyril Ramaphosa for their collective role in hosting this event and providing technical support as well.
We also appreciate the Egyptian Medical Association’s prime role in preparing the scientific content and its focus on medical education and continuous professional development.
It is worth noting that three key focus areas have been created for launching such mega event, which are:
The academic focus area that is based on resenting the latest and important updates about scientific research in various medical disciplines (25 specialties) with the participation of the most prominent subject-matter experts on the international levels, either from Africa, Egypt, or the Arab region.
The second focus area is associated with the medical policies and the actual implementation, with an emphasis on the importance of establishing effective and sustainable foundations for inter-African cooperation in this regard.
The third focus area is associated with technology, as the cornerstone for advancing medical diagnosis and treatment in while ensuring the best healthcare practices.
These focus areas were crystalized during the largest exhibition, which has been the sole gathering point for more than… global medical tech companies, presenting the latest technologies in medical devices and supplies and consumables. The exhibition allowed all the exhibition’s visitors – either senior health policy officials in African countries, physicians, or healthcare service providers to get to know the latest innovations in this sector.
The following is a review of the Conference’s most important outcomes:
- – Working on achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, especially the third SDG “to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”, as well as its various targets, including the accessibility to quality primary healthcare services, effective drugs, and vaccines at affordable cost. This is in addition to promoting R&D in vaccines and medicines for treating communicable and non-communicable diseases to which developing countries are primarily exposed, within the framework of the WHO Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases by 2030, the best procurement policy, and the action plan set by the African centers for disease control and prevention for eliminating non-communicable diseases such as diabetes in Africa and Ending Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) initiative in Africa.
- Launching a call for setting up a continental strategy for AI applications in the medical sector by African minds with a keen focus on the continent’s unique potential to achieve a direct and notable contribution to optimize Africans’ access to health services and improve the responsiveness of health systems to needs of individuals and local communities.
- Improving the quality and efficiency of health services, empowering patients, and giving them access to information about healthcare services.
- Launching of a unified e-database platform linking all African countries to pave the way for continental cooperation in the healthcare sector to support experts and companies in establishing partnerships and assessing the continental cooperation.
- Agreeing on a set of procedures to intensify cooperation on various medical levels, including jointly conducting research based on the communities’ demands and priorities, along with taking advantage of the latest technologies, exchanging experiences, and promoting medical tourism to harness the national expertise in the African countries.
- Preparing for the launch of a unified management system for health facilities in the continent that takes into account all the requirements related to applying the highest international quality standards based on the expertise gained by UPA.
- Providing health policy training programs for the medical staff in Africa, in cooperation with the WHO during the next two years, as well as issuing a booklet in several languages in 2024.
- Doubling the localization efforts in the industries of pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and medical supplies.
- Launching Egyptian medical convoys in remote areas in Africa for treating moderate and major surgical conditions.
- Encouraging the concerned research entities to :
- Review a proposal for unifying the registration and drug pricing as per the AU’s action plans
- Shaping a roadmap for cooperation between African governments, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and academic and research institutions with the private sector, as well as identifying solutions for the current health challenges.
- The conference followed the progress of the “Health Africa…from procurement to recovery” initiative, which was launched during the first edition of the conference held in Cairo in 2022. The initiative aims to expand African human capacities to manufacture 25% of vaccines, tools, equipment, and medical supplies by 2030. This is in addition to strengthening the negotiation position of the African countries in importing drugs and medical supplies that are not produced on the continent, to ensure strategically efficient supply.
- The head of the Egyptian Unified Procurement Authority (UPA), Maj. Gen. Dr Bahaa Zeidan, stated that the participants agreed to annually convene in Egypt recognizing the importance of this new platform in building up new synergies between the parties to health development and the actors in Africa, as another meeting initially scheduled for H2 2024, adding that the authority will start preparing for the 2024 meeting and follow up on achieving the steps agreed upon during the conference.
- On the other hand, Prof. Dr. Adel Adawy, former Minister of Health and President of the Egyptian Medical Association, reflected the participant’s appreciation for Egypt as the host of this conference and taking the initiative to develop the conference’s scope, praising, in particular, the warm reception of the UPA and the professional event organization.
