38th African Union (AU) Summit and the Health Agenda on the Continent
Image of the African Union Flag in a Circular Frame
I am back with another post, this time a bit delayed but it is still good to refresh our minds of what happened at the 38th African Union (AU) Summit and the continent’s health agenda.
The 38th Ordinary Session of the AU Summit was held from January 14 to February 16, 2025. The Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government was held from February 15 to 16, 2025, which brought together African Heads of States. The theme of this year's Summit was “Building a United Front to Advance the Cause of Justice and the Payment of Reparations to Africans.” If this is your first time reading my blog, check out the summit posts from the 36th Summit in 2023 and the 37th Summit in 2024.
The sub-themes of this theme are the following: (1) Agenda 2063, (2) Health and Well-Being (3) Youth and Innovation (4) Peace and Security (5) Climate Resilience. While these are separate sub-themes. It is encouraging to see health and well-being recognized as a sub-theme at such a high-level, continent-wide engagement. Without protecting the health of the continent, all other sectors will not thrive. The session saw a new round of leadership. There is a newly elected Chairperson, H.E. Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, and a new Deputy Chairperson, H.E. Selma Malika Haddadi.
There were also 4 new appointments of commissioners:
Amb. Bankole Adeoye to the Department of Political Affairs, Peace and Security;
Mr. Moses Vilakati to the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment
Ms. Lerato Mataboge to the Department of Infrastructure and Energy,
Amb. Amma Twum-Amoah to the Department of Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development
Ministers of Health and Local Manufacturing
If you have been following this series on my blog, you know that in 2023, the Africa CDC held the first Ministerial Executive Leadership Programme (MELP) on the sidelines of the AU Summit. This year, the third annual MELP was organized in collaboration with Strathmore University Business School and held sessions focused on reimagining primary care, universal health coverage (UHC), cross-sectoral collaboration, and climate & health. The World Health Organization defines primary care as a collaborative approach from all levels of government that includes prevention, health promotion, palliative care, and treatment, which are in close proximity to those in need.
Discussions on primary care also need to focus on UHC to ensure people can pay for health services, and cross-sector collaboration to ensure all sectors of the government ensure that people can access healthy environments and access care they need. Climate also exacerbates individuals’ health and can make individuals need to access primary care more often, so it is also an important part of the conversation, especially to ensure public health systems are prepared for climate disasters.
Another important topic was local manufacturing. A press conference was held with H.E. Minata Samate Cessouma, the Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs, and Social Development. During this conference, there was a discussion on public health challenges including synthetic drug supply and demand. There were also talks about operationalization of the African Medicines Agency (AMA). AMA was adopted in February 2019 with the goal of regulating medical products to ensure they are safe and effective. AMA supports the Africa Medicines Regulatory Harmonization (AMRH), which supports regulatory authorities in African Union member states. At the time of the summit, AMA was looking for a Director General, and at the time of posting this piece, there is a Director of AMA, Dr. Delese Mimi Darko, who was appointed in June 2025.
On the topic of vaccine development, the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) held a session on Sustainable Access to Vaccines. This focused on strengthening regulatory frameworks, building production capacity, and the importance of partnerships in achieving AU priorities. The continent’s goal is to produce 60% of vaccines locally by 2040; these discussions are welcome and actions taken are important to achieve this goal.
African Union Development Agency and Its Role in Public Health
While not a health agency, the African Union’s Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) had vital public health contributions at the Summit and has positioned itself as a key development partner to address public health challenges. This prioritizes the interdisciplinary approach the continent needs to transform public health systems, especially when it comes to disease prevention and incorporating social and structural determinants of health. Health and development are interconnected; thus, having AUDA-NEPAD lead public health conversations should be applauded.
AUDA-NEPAD and the Ethiopian Ministry of Health co-hosted a high-level event on prioritizing sexual and reproductive health to accelerate progress towards UHC. AUDA-NEPAD’s CEO, H.E. Nardos Bekele-Thomas, highlighted the importance of sexual and reproductive health rights as she said
“Africa’s demographic dividend will remain an untapped promise if millions of women and young people continue to be denied their fundamental rights to health, education, and economic participation.” - H.E. Nardos Bekele-Thomas
The Policy Brief released following this session discusses supporting African Regional Economic Communities (RECs) to establish regional health organizations. Established regional health organizations can help strengthen health systems by decentralizing public health responses and ensuring effective collaboration within a region.
AUDA-NEPAD also signed a Declaration of Intent with the Association of African Universities (AAU) to strengthen collaboration to drive Africa’s education, science, and technology sectors. Strengthening these sectors are key to improving public health. While signing agreements are welcome, as a continent, we need to take action beyond signatures on paper and be held accountable if action is not taken.
AUDA-NEPAD also launched a report on the 24 Priority Medical Products and Roadmap for Regional Manufacturing in Africa. This roadmap was developed through a literature review and seeks to address challenges in pharmaceutical manufacturing by collaborating with RECs and working with the private sector. Building pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity can drive economic growth and improve health outcomes on the continent. AUDA-NEPAD also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Clinton Health Access Initiative to drive self-sufficiency in local manufacturing.
Prime Minister Mia Motley, from Barbados, was also present, signifying ideals of Pan-Africanism present at this Summit. She is a guest of the African Union Commission in her capacity as Chair of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). COVID-19 showed us the interconnectedness of trade and health, and there is the potential to create an efficient trade corridor between CARICOM and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) that could be used to trade locally produced medical products between the regions.
AUDA-NEPAD also hosted a high-level dialogue on Innovative Financing for Sustainable Housing and Urban Development in Africa. This reiterates the interconnectedness of health and development. Particularly, housing is a critical determinant of health, as your environment can have much more significant impacts on health outcomes than your biology. This session concluded with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between AUDA-NEPAD and Shelter Afrique Development Bank. This aims to lead to action to create accessible and affordable housing and enabling environments on the continent that help safeguard everyone’s health.
Self-Financing, Increasing Vaccinations, and Addressing Malnutrition
African leaders had vital discussions about health financing, vaccinations, and malnutrition. As the global health funding landscape continues to shift, leaders had discussions about domestic health financing on the margins of the Summit. The current landscape has seen donor countries suddenly reduce their development assistance budgets leaving many African countries with not many choises, but to step up domestic financing. One success story is Rwanda’s focus on community based health insurance (CBHI), Mutelle de santé. With CBHI’s families pay into a pool and if a person gets ill, they can pay 10% of the medical bills. CBHI’s offer protection for low-income families.
Africa CDC, UNICEF, WHO, GAVI also held an Immunization side-event and UHC progress. This event had calls to improve immunization coverage through strengthened primary healthcare systems and aimed to reignite commitments to the Addis Declaration on Immunization (ADI) in 2016. The ADI is a political commitment made by African Heads of States to ensure all Africans have access to immunization. Highlights of the declaration include reducing child mortality, increasing domestic investments, and developing a research sector in immunization.
The Global Leaders Network for Women’s, Children’s, and Adolescents’ Health (GLN) and the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) hosted a high-level breakfast focusing on women, adolescents, and children. This convening gathered policymakers, health ministers to determine ways to leverage sustained financing for sexual, reproductive, and child health. Ensuring sustained financing is important, as a presentation (pg. 4) at this session highlighted that:
1. “44+ million lives women, newborns (including stillbirths) and children under five will be lost by 2030
2. “50%+ more than half of these deaths will occur in sub-Saharan Africa”
And, like previous years, there was continued discussion on addressing malnutrition. The African continent has some of the most arable lands in the world, but a lot of food is imported due to limited domestic ability to produce food. This is similar to the local manufacturing issue in public health, where African countries have very little domestic capacity and thus many countries import between 70% to 99% of their medical products. The side-event From Policy to Action: Towards a Common Position to Address Malnutrition in Africa discussed the continent’s progress towards achieving its nutrition targets.
“The continent's slow progress toward achieving its nutrition targets, [] which collectively cost Africa USD 153 billion annually in lost productivity and economic growth.”
African First Ladies Were Present, And So Were the Youth Voices
This year, African First ladies pledged to close the gender gap. What was missing from the discussions was the participation of youth. The African Youth Envoy, Chido Mpemba gave a speech on reparations, reflecting on the negative impact of colonial powers on socio-economic development on the continent. Health systems designs and transportation networks in many countries can be traced to the colonial era.
It is important to meaningfully engage with youth, especially as about 70% of the continent’s population is under 30 years of age.
Are youth being meaningfully engaged and shaping the continent’s work and future, or is this just another item on a checklist to say youth were engaged?
