Africa

From local production of vaccines to digital infrastructure and renewable energy, Japan is investing in health innovation in Africa. Credit: UNDP

By Mandeep Dhaliwal and Osamu Kunii
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 8 2025 (IPS)

At a time of great transformation for global health, solidarity is more important than ever. As other countries have retreated from their commitments, Japan has instead continued its steadfast investment in a shared future that prioritizes human dignity and security.

Japan is reaffirming its commitment to this vision at the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) —a forum that champions African-led development—by placing youth employment and digital transformation at the heart of its agenda.

In line with these priorities, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) announced US$160 million in bonds to support infrastructure, education and innovation across Africa. Significantly, the initiative invites Japanese companies and financial institutions to partner with and invest in African countries for mutual benefit.

Japan’s leadership on global health has long been underpinned by a strong sense of shared responsibility and solidarity. Wealthy countries should follow Japan’s lead, by building partnerships, scaling up proven innovations and fostering sustainable growth in Africa.

This approach could be particularly transformative for local manufacturing, digital health innovations and climate-resilient health systems—areas where African-led solutions are already gaining ground.

The Accra compact, adopted by the Africa Health Sovereignty Summit convened by Ghanaian President John Mahama, asserts the leadership and sovereignty of African countries in determining the health of their people.

For over a decade, Japan has supported both the Access and Delivery Partnership (ADP) and the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (GHIT Fund) to develop and deliver health technologies to the people who need them most.

This innovative partnership between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the GHIT supports the journey of medical innovations, including vaccines, medicines and diagnostics, from lab to bedside. GHIT stimulates research and development, while ADP—led by UNDP—works with countries and communities to introduce and scale up the finished products.

For over a decade, Japan has supported the Access and Delivery Partnership, led by UNDP, to deploy health technologies on the continent. Credit: UNDP Ghana

One recent success is the development and rollout of a new paediatric treatment option for schistosomiasis, an infection caused by a parasitic worm that affects 50 million preschool-aged children. Schistosomiasis, which is found primarily in tropical regions, causes anaemia, stunted growth and impaired cognitive development.

Children aged 6 years and under can now take a small pill for treatment. The GHIT Fund and the Pediatric Praziquantel Consortium—led by German pharmaceutical company Merck—worked together to develop the medicine and transfer the technology to Kenyan pharmaceutical manufacturer Universal Corporation Limited (UCL). Thanks to this collaboration, UCL is now producing medicine locally in Kenya, ensuring sustainable access to treatment for affected communities.

This shift toward local manufacturing is gaining momentum across Africa. Countries from Senegal to Rwanda and beyond are rapidly becoming regional manufacturing hubs for diagnostics, vaccine and medicine production.

In 2024, the Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD) inaugurated a new diagnostic manufacturing site, while in 2023, Rwanda collaborated with BioNTech to open what could become Africa’s first mRNA vaccine manufacturing facility. At the same time, digital technologies and AI are reshaping the future of African health care systems.

In June, 50 African Union Member States endorsed a digital micro-planning tool co-created by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization and other partners, to accelerate the elimination of neglected tropical diseases like onchocerciasis and dengue.

Scaling up homegrown tools will strengthen epidemic preparedness, and when disaster strikes, they can mean the difference between containment and catastrophe.

The rise of these innovations underscores Africa’s position as an emerging hub for digital transformation. With Africa’s digital economy projected to grow to $712 billion by 2035, investors have a strong incentive to support the digital infrastructure boom

Japan is already ahead of the curve. Over the past few years, Japan has partnered with Ghana to establish mobile laboratories at the country’s four main points of entry to strengthen pandemic preparedness.

Earlier this year, Japan and Cote d’Ivoire jointly committed to supporting UNDP’s timbuktoo initiative, which promotes entrepreneurship opportunities for startups led by young Africans, including a health tech accelerator focused on amplifying innovation across the health sector in Africa.

Finally, innovation and investment are especially urgent in countries disproportionately affected by climate extremes. African nations are pioneering approaches to climate-resilient health systems that other countries can learn from.

The continent’s leading initiative—the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Programme—has already mobilized more than $15 billion to protect countries against climate shocks. Joint initiatives like Solar for Health and Smart Health Systems, a collaboration between UNDP, governments and other partners, has brought reliable power to 1,000 health facilities across 14 countries, ensuring medicines and vaccines stay cool and lights stay on.

As the impact of climate change on health systems accelerates, programmes like these must be scaled sustainably to protect health systems from current and future threats.

Investment priorities must align accordingly. As Japan leads the way, other countries should follow by funding sustainable, equitable, inclusive and mutually beneficial interventions. This is more than sound policy—it is an imperative for our shared future.

This article was originally published in Nikkei Asia.

Source: UNDP

Mandeep Dhaliwal is Director of the HIV and Health Group, UNDP; Osamu Kunii is CEO and Executive Director, Global Health Innovative Technology Fund

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Protesters demonstrate outside the Columbia University campus in New York City. October 2024. Credit: UN Photo/Evan Schneider

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 8 2025 (IPS)

When the high-level meeting of over 150 world leaders takes place at the United Nations, September 22-30, one of the political highlights would be the announcement by at least 10 Western nations to recognize Palestine as a sovereign nation state.

The 10 countries– some already announcing their recognition ahead of the UN meeting — include UK, France, Canada, Australia, Portugal, Malta, Belgium, Spain, Ireland and Norway– proving the longstanding support for Israel is gradually diminishing in the Western world.

According to Cable News Network (CNN), Israel’s Foreign Ministry has “rejected” the European nations’ recent calls for recognition, describing it as a “reward to Hamas” that undermine efforts to reach a ceasefire– while US President Donald Trump has blasted the calls for recognition.

Still, the United States, a relentless supporter of Israel, will exercise its veto in the Security Council against any attempts at recognition of a Palestinian state as “a full-fledged member of the United Nations.”

So far, the State of Palestine has been recognized as a sovereign nation state by 147 of the 193 member states, or just over 76% of all UN members. It has been “a non-member observer state” of the UN General Assembly since November 2012.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, was quoted in the New York Times, as saying: “We told all these (European) countries, if you do this recognition stuff, it’s all fake, it’s not even real. If you do it, you are going to create problems. There’s going to be a response.”

The Trump administration, perhaps in a counter move, has revoked US visas to all Palestinian delegates due to address the General Assembly (GA) next week.

As a result, there were moves either to re-locate at least one GA session to Geneva, as it did when PLO leader Yasser Arafat was denied a US visa back in 1974, or for the Palestinian delegates to participate remotely.

Asked for an update, UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters last week: “We’re in touch with the State Department to try to get some clarification, and obviously (and) hopefully, a reversal of the decision based on their obligations under the [US-UN Headquarters] Agreement.”

Given the US visa restrictions, is there a possibility that the high-level week of the General Assembly be held somewhere outside of US? one of the reporters asked.

“No”, said Dujarric. “I’ve not seen any credible movement on that, but added, “I mean, Member States can decide to hold a meeting wherever they decide to hold it. That would be a decision of the General Assembly. But frankly, I have not seen any serious traction on that”.

Dr. Alon Ben-Meir, a retired professor of international relations, most recently at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University (NYU), told IPS the important role of European countries in supporting Palestinian independence cannot be overstated.

Their support, he said, must transcend symbolism and focus on the nitty-gritty of what is needed to advance the Palestinians’ cause. The measures to be taken include:

Providing direct economic support to Palestinian institutions and infrastructure while ensuring accountability.

Establishing bilateral trade agreements with the Palestinians to boost their economy, independent of Israel.

Pushing for enhanced observer status and participation of Palestine in international bodies while providing legal forums to pursue international acceptance and rights.

Upgrading Palestinian consulate representative offices in their capitals to a higher diplomatic level.

Funding a public diplomacy campaign in their respective capitals to build support for Palestinian statehood.

Offering training and support for Palestinian internal security forces in coordination with Israel to maintain order and stability, said Dr Ben-Meir, who has taught courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies

Dr James Jennings, President of Conscience International and a longtime advocate for Palestinian human rights, told IPS the group of European countries that intend to recognize Palestine and demand Palestinian statehood in New York in September will unfortunately not make a dent in the situation on the ground. They are decades late to the party and not in any position to empower the Palestinians to establish their state.

“The sincerity of the plan can also be questioned. The move may be timed to distract attention from the UN General Assembly’s vote and the almost certain failure to gain Security Council recognition. After all, some of these same countries have been arming Israel with the bombs that over the past two years have regularly killed unarmed Palestinian women and children in Gaza,” he pointed out.

Palestine is not yet a nation despite its widespread diplomatic recognition. It must first achieve genuine sovereignty. History shows that true independence must be taken, not given, he said.

“The West Bank of the Jordan River and the Gaza Strip are occupied territories. At this point Palestine is just an idea, a group of people with a flag, and a limited political and administrative apparatus. The Palestinians’ strong group identity is their major asset, meaning that no matter what happens, the people of Palestine are in their land to stay”, said Dr Jennings, who is also Executive Director of US Academics for Peace.

Palestinian nationhood is supported by a growing number of people in the United States and Western Europe, but the question is how to implement the idea.

The Two-State Solution has been discussed for a long time but is now considered dead by close observers of international politics.

The facts on the ground, with nearly six decades of oppressive military occupation and the high number of Israeli settlers now living inside the 1967 Green Line, make it extremely difficult if not impossible to establish a Palestinian state, said Dr Jennings.

Worldwide recognition of Palestine Is growing. The joint position of European nations may help focus attention on the problem of Palestinian statelessness, but is no substitute for actively challenging Israel’s dominance of the West Bank and Gaza. Its greatest value may be to focus attention on the international community’s lack of collective will to impose a solution.

“So far Israel has refused even to define its own borders. The Knesset, under the Likud, is poised to seize and nationalize all Palestinian territory, meaning that there cannot be two states, but only one: Israel. The US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, endorses that, proclaiming that God gave Palestine to the Jews.”

External pressure on Israel from this group of countries is therefore unlikely to work absent leadership from Israel’s main backer, the United States, declared Dr Jennings.

Elaborating further, Dr Ben-Mier said although such recognition is significant, it remains symbolic unless many critical measures are taken by all the players involved to mitigate the following four reasons behind the failures in advancing the prospect of establishing such a state.

First, Israel has done everything within its reach, especially now with the support of the Trump administration, to prevent that from happening.

Second, the Palestinian Authority has done little to establish a legitimate representative government and a political apparatus responsive to public needs, even though 147 countries have already recognized it.

Third, the Arab states, though publicly supportive, have provided some financial support but have made no concerted effort over the years to bring the idea to fruition.

And four, the countries that have recognized Palestinian statehood have not taken significant measures to ensure its implementation.

“To realistically pave the way to Palestinian statehood, the players involved will have to take momentous measures and remain on course, even though Israel will vehemently resist and lean on the US to use its weight to prevent such an outcome”, declared Dr Ben-Meir.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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F. A. A.