‘Africa should manufacture own pharmaceuticals’
MBABANE – Minister for Health in Uganda Dr Ruth Aceng has pointed out that Africa must learn from the recent COVID-19 pandemic, allocate enough resources for improving the health of the people and manufacture its own pharmaceutical commodities
7he minister asserted that nations of the continent should start to fend for themselves and stop begging and relying on foreign donations
7his is contained in the report of the Health 3ortfolio Committee on the 1orth (ast $frican 3arliamentary Committees of Health 1($3$C2H meeting held in .ampala, Uganda on )ebruary
Attended
3arliament this last 0onday
7he meeting was as a result of an invitation from the office of the 1($3$C2H in conMunction with the 3arliament of Uganda
,n her remarks during the meeting, $ceng shared that $frica was not short of conducive policy environment to facilitate its work in bringing higher scale of issues of deliberating priority policy interventions, building and sustaining the momentum for political will and national ownership and support in order to consolidate the gains made towards achieving the Universal Health Coverage UHC and the sustainable development goals SDGs
Focus
³7here is a need to address health as a sensitive issue and focus on the health of our people
She also revealed that due to the outbreak of C29,D- , maMor donors were withholding health commodities for themselves and although $frica was able to survive the pandemic
She also stated that Health was wealth and also politics,´ she said
She stated that $frican countries should also discuss and share reproductive problems as they are similar to improve a better $frica
7he minister highlighted that legislators should show the whole world that $frican countries could stand on their own as Uganda recently fought and ended the spread of (bola in days
Services
7he key themes of the meetings revealed by 0abu]a, were set towards achieving UHC and SDGs, accelerating access to sexual reproductive health information and services for adolescents and young people, accelerating domestic health financing for achieving UHC and SDGs in $frica, integrating population, health, and environment for sustainable development and strengthening $frican leadership, and accountability for achieving UHC and the SDGs