IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i22p11758-d675323.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Advancing African Medicines Agency through Global Health Diplomacy for an Equitable Pan-African Universal Health Coverage: A Scoping Review

Author

Listed:
  • Vijay Kumar Chattu

    (Department of Medicine, Division of Occupational Medicine, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5G 2C4, Canada
    Department of Public Health, Saveetha Medical College, SIMATS, Saveetha University, Chennai 600077, India
    Institute of International Relations, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, St. Augustine 999183, Trinidad and Tobago)

  • Vishal B. Dave

    (TI Global Limited, 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ, UK)

  • K. Srikanth Reddy

    (Bruyère Research Institute, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 5C8, Canada
    WHO Collaborating Centre for Knowledge Translation and Health Technology Assessment in Health Equity, Ottawa, ON K1N 5C8, Canada)

  • Bawa Singh

    (Department of South and Central Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda 15100, India)

  • Biniyam Sahiledengle

    (Department of Public Health, Madda Walabu University Goba Referral Hospital, Bale-Goba P.O. Box 302, Ethiopia)

  • Demisu Zenbaba Heyi

    (Department of Public Health, Madda Walabu University Goba Referral Hospital, Bale-Goba P.O. Box 302, Ethiopia)

  • Cornelius Nattey

    (Health Economics and Epidemiology Research Office, Wits Health Consortium, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa)

  • Daniel Atlaw

    (Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Madda Walabu University Goba Referral Hospital, Goba P.O. Box 302, Ethiopia)

  • Kioko Jackson

    (Country Medical Services, Ministry of Health, Nairobi 00100, Kenya)

  • Ziad El-Khatib

    (Bill and Joyce Cummings Institute for Global Health, University of Global Health Equity, Kigali P.O. Box 6955, Rwanda
    Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, 17177 Stockholm, Sweden)

  • Akram Ali Eltom

    (Former Federal Minister of Health, Transitional Government of Sudan, Khartoum 825109, Sudan)

Abstract

The African continent is home to 15% of the world’s population and suffers from a disease burden of more than 25% globally. In this COVID-19 era, the high burden and mortality are further worsened due to inequities, inequalities such as inadequate health systems, scarce financial and human resources, as well as unavailability of inexpensive medicines of good quality, safety, and efficacy. The Universal Health Coverage ensures that people have access to high-quality essential health services, secure, reliable, and affordable essential medicines and vaccines, as well as financial security. This paper aimed at addressing the critical need for a continental African Medicines Agency (AMA) in addressing the inequities and the role of global health diplomacy in building consensus to support the ratification of the Treaty of AMA. A literature review was done in Scopus, Web of Science, MEDLINE/PubMed, and Google Scholar search engine to identify the critical literature in the context of study objectives. All the articles published after 2015 till 2021 in the context of AMA were included. African Health Strategy 2016–2030 highlighted the importance of an African regulatory mechanism for medicines and medical products. Through global health diplomacy (GHD), the African Union and its partners can negotiate and cooperate in providing infrastructural, administrative, and regulatory support for establishing the AMA. The paper emphasizes the South–South cooperation and highlights the contributions of India and China in the supply of medicines and vaccines to Africa. A strong AMA created through GHD can be a vital instrument in utilizing Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) flexibilities extension and an ideal partner for European and other regional regulatory authorities seeking to stem the tide of counterfeit, sub-standard, or fake products.

Suggested Citation

  • Vijay Kumar Chattu & Vishal B. Dave & K. Srikanth Reddy & Bawa Singh & Biniyam Sahiledengle & Demisu Zenbaba Heyi & Cornelius Nattey & Daniel Atlaw & Kioko Jackson & Ziad El-Khatib & Akram Ali Eltom, 2021. "Advancing African Medicines Agency through Global Health Diplomacy for an Equitable Pan-African Universal Health Coverage: A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-22, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:22:p:11758-:d:675323
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/22/11758/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/22/11758/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Priya Gauttam & Bawa Singh & Jaspal Kaur, 2020. "COVID-19 and Chinese Global Health Diplomacy: Geopolitical Opportunity for China’s Hegemony?," Millennial Asia, , vol. 11(3), pages 318-340, December.
    2. Fazal, Tanisha M., 2020. "Health Diplomacy in Pandemical Times," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 74(S1), pages 78-97, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Anna Balestra & Raul Caruso, 2023. "Vaccines between war and market," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 26(1), pages 24-39, March.
    2. Bernd Schlipphak & Paul Meiners & Osman Sabri Kiratli, 2022. "Crisis affectedness, elite cues and IO public legitimacy," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 877-898, October.
    3. Nippun Gupta & Bawa Singh & Jaspal Kaur & Sandeep Singh & Vijay Kumar Chattu, 2021. "COVID-19 Pandemic and Reimagination of Multilateralism through Global Health Diplomacy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-12, October.
    4. Lorenzo Pratici & Phillip McMinn Singer, 2021. "COVID-19 Vaccination: What Do We Expect for the Future? A Systematic Literature Review of Social Science Publications in the First Year of the Pandemic (2020–2021)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-18, July.
    5. Çağdaş Üngör, 2023. "Chinese Vaccine Diplomacy in the Eastern Mediterranean: Continuities and Rupture in Beijing’s Soft Power Prospects," Contemporary Review of the Middle East, , vol. 10(1), pages 62-83, March.
    6. Kazunobu Hayakawa & Kohei Imai, 2022. "Who sends me face masks? Evidence for the impacts of COVID‐19 on international trade in medical goods," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(2), pages 365-385, February.
    7. Remco Johan Leonard Dijk & Catherine Yuk-ping Lo, 2023. "The effect of Chinese vaccine diplomacy during COVID-19 in the Philippines and Vietnam: a multiple case study from a soft power perspective," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-12, December.
    8. Youngwan Kim & Sang-Hwan Lee & Young Jun Cho, 2023. "Donor motivation in the era of the COVID-19 crisis: Focusing on South Korean health diplomacy and response aid to COVID-19," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 26(1), pages 71-86, March.
    9. Serena Giusti & Eleonora Tafuro Ambrosetti, 2022. "Making the Best Out of a Crisis: Russia’s Health Diplomacy during COVID-19," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-14, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:22:p:11758-:d:675323. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.