According to this article, China has become one of Africa's leading trading partners, with trade totaling US$106.8 billion in 2008, up 45 per cent from the previous year. China's increasing demand for raw materials to fuel its domestic growth has resulted in agreements on access to and extraction of minerals and oil from resource-rich African countries. China has also become an emerging player in providing financial assistance for infrastructure development in Africa, helping African countries address their infrastructure needs such as railways, hydropower and roads. China has sought to provide concessional financing for infrastructure and construction projects through its Export-Import Bank, often using Chinese companies to carry out the projects. Since 200, China's foreign policy in the region has been directed through the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation (FOCAC), which is the main vehicle for China's activities in Africa, providing a multilateral platform for dialogue with a view to reaching mutually agreeable goals. A number of action plans have emerged from FOCAC, which outline commitments to Africa by the Chinese government, such as the 2009 Sharm El Sheikh Action Plan, in which the Chinese government commits itself to finance the training of African nurses, as well as contribute to malaria health services by supplying equipment and anti-malaria drugs.
Health equity in economic and trade policies
South-South trade is growing fast, but barriers among developing countries are still up to seven times higher than those imposed by the developed world, according to this article. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has announced that exports from developing countries have grown to 37% of global trade, of which about 50% related to South-South trade. Historically, developing countries focused on preferential access to developed markets, but an OECD spokesperson said that the global economy had dramatically changed over the last two decades with wealth shifting from the developed world to developing countries, necessitating a change in thinking and attitude when it came to trade. The OECD anticipates that the growth trend would continue, predicting an increased contribution by developing countries. However, OECD pointed out that accelerated growth had resulted in greater inequalities in society, which could lead to political unrest, like the recent civil demonstrations in North Africa. The OECD called for good policy and governance in developing countries to build the correct developmental infrastructure, improve education and health, and increase human capital, while continuously diversifying their economies with a strong focus on productivity and innovation. One way to achieve this is through peer-to-peer learning, where policymakers can come together and share their successes and failures with each other, OECD argues.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is involved in a debate related to intellectual property rights over a dangerous new pathogen, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus. This report records that the virus was sent to Erasmus without authorisation of the Saudi government, which has sovereign rights, and which has criticised Erasmus' intellectual property stance. When Erasmus eventually began sharing the virus, they did so under a material transfer agreement (MTA) with very strong provisions to protect the university’s own intellectual property, prompting objections from some scientists. Erasmus is reported to have submitted a patent application the content of which is unknown, due to normal procedures at patent offices where publication of applications is delayed for six months or more from the time of their submission. The raising of patent and sovereignty issues over emerging viruses at the World Health Assembly suggests that controversies caused by intellectual property claims over newly identified pathogens will continue to occur unless broader solutions are found to allow viruses to be distributed to researchers while protecting sovereign rights, the author concludes.
After their workshop, participants made a number of recommendations. They wanted governments to meet their obligations in the Abuja Declaration to spend at least 15% of its budget on the health sector, in addition to any donor aid the country may receive for the same purpose. A process should be initiated to review and amend all patent legislation, especially to ensure maximum use of TRIPS flexibilities that promote access to medicines. The implications of ratifying the 30 August 2003 decision on licenses for exports to countries with insufficient manufacturing capacity need to be considered. An improvement is required in the monitoring, transparency and participation of all interested stakeholders in the negotiation of free trade agreements and economic partnership agreements to ensure no eroding of flexibilities and no further enforcement processes to patents.
The African Civil Society Coalition on IGWG statement reiterates commitment to the ongoing WHO initiative to develop a Global Strategy and Plan of Action on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property. It reaffirms that there is an urgent need for action to improve access to medicines for people in developing countries. People cannot access the medicines they need; The economic, social and political determinants of illness are not being sufficiently addressed; The pharmaceutical market is not driven by public health interests, but by commercial interests; Patent protection and high prices are two of the barriers blocking poor people’s access to medicines; Funding for research, development and access (RDA) to medicines is insufficient; There is a lack of innovation for medicines for many of the diseases prevalent in our countries; Health interests of poor people are neglected by the profit-driven pharmaceutical market.
The Southern and Eastern African Trade, Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI) has issued a statement in response to the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) meetings and the 13th Summit of Heads of State and Government held from 28 May to 8 June 2009. It recommends that a moratorium be put in place on economic partnership agreements (EPA) negotiations until east and southern African (ESA) countries have instituted adequate institutional mechanisms to deal with trade liberalisation. ESA countries should instead focus on developing their regional markets. In light of the current global recession, they must reverse most of the commitments they have agreed under the International Monetary Fund/World Bank structural adjustment policies, the World Trade Organisation and the so-called interim EPAs to allow them to implement favourable home-grown policies that are in tandem with their development priorities.
This study describes the status of occupational health and safety in Tanzania and the challenges in provision of occupational health services in an expanding economy, with growth being driven by communications, transport, finance services, construction, mining, agriculture, and manufacturing. The workers exposed to hazards from these activities are found suffer from illness and injuries, but to not access adequate occupational health services, with services limited to a few enterprises that can afford it. Existing laws and regulations are reported by the authors to not cover the entire population and implementation to be weak. The authors argue for an occupational health and safety services strategy, backed by legal review, training and the necessary skills, financial and technological resources to cover the whole working population, to match the growing economy.
Hundreds of representatives of social and labour organisations, faith based, community-based and health networks, small farmers, traders, women and youth organisations, and developmental, human rights and environmental NGOs from across the whole of the Southern African region gathered in a Peoples Summit in Lusaka, Zambia, 15-16 August 2007, parallel to the SADC Heads of State summit. They discussed many issues of common concern and agreed that there is now an urgent generalised threat hanging over the whole future of SADC. This arises from the insistence of the European Union (EU) that SADC, like other regional groupings in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (the ACP countries) must sign a far-reaching trade liberalisation agreement with the EU. Participants claim this has been misleadingly entitled an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), despite already witnessing the damaging effects of trade liberalisation.
This study aimed to identify how research organisations and partnerships could contribute to capacity strengthening for health technology assessment and priority-setting in Africa. A rapid scan was conducted of international formal and grey literature and lessons extracted from the deliberations of two international and regional workshops relating to capacity-building for health technology assessment. ‘Capacity’ was defined in broad terms, including a conducive political environment, strong public institutional capacity to drive priority-setting, effective networking between experts, strong research organisations and skilled researchers. Effective priority-setting requires more than high quality economic research. Researchers have to engage with an array of stakeholders, network closely other research organisations, build partnerships with different levels of government and train the future generation of researchers and policy-makers. In low- and middle-income countries where there are seldom government units or agencies dedicated to health technology assessment, they also have to support the development of an effective priority-setting process that is sensitive to societal and government needs and priorities. Research organisations were found to have an important role to play in contributing to the development of health technology assessment and priority-setting capacity. In Africa, where there are resource and capacity challenges, effective partnerships between local and international researchers, and with key government stakeholders, can leverage existing skills and knowledge to generate a critical mass of individuals and institutions. It is proposed that these would help to meet the priority-setting needs of African countries.
The Regional Economic Communities (RECs) are the pillars of the African Union (AU), and have been recognised by the AU as the key vehicles for economic integration and cooperation in Africa. The 2003 Session of the AU Conference of African Ministers of Health (CAMH) considered and adopted, inter alia, recommendations on a proposal to establish Health and Social Affairs Desks within the RECs. The 2003 Maputo Session of the Assembly of AU Heads of State and Government duly endorsed the Report of the Ministers and their recommendations. This paper represents an attempt to assess the extent to which the 2003 decision of CAMH has been implemented. The researchers also argue that regional integration and cooperation should not be geared solely towards economic, trade or political purposes but to the social sector as well, and proposes a set of criteria as useful starting points for determining which social (i.e. health) activities can be undertaken at the regional and sub-regional levels.