Africa

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BioNTainers, facilities equipped to manufacture a range of mRNA-based vaccines have been inaugurated in Rwanda in December 2023. Credit: Aimable Twahirwa/IPS

By Aimable Twahirwa
KIGALI, Jan 8 2024 (IPS)

An agreement signed between the Rwandan government and the Africa Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation (APTF) gives impetus to Africa’s domestic industry with the hope of helping the continent tackle vaccine inequity and fill the critical gap in vaccine manufacturing.

The agreement to operationalize the foundation was signed in Kigali, Rwanda, in late 2023.

What is important, according to stakeholders, is to focus efforts on building a resilient and self-reliant pharmaceutical industry for the continent. This became apparent during COVID-19, when, for example, COVAX, a multilateral mechanism for equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines, helped lower-income economies achieve two-dose coverage of 57 percent, compared to the global average of 67 percent.

Both officials and scientists take delight in pointing out that the benefit of having such an initiative is to close the vaccine equity gap between African countries and the world’s developed nations.

During the implementation phase, the African Development Bank (ADB) has committed to investing up to USD 3 billion over the next decade in the development of pharmaceutical products.

The foundation, which is ready to hit the ground running in January 2024, will dedicate its core mandate to addressing some of the common challenges facing African indigenous pharmaceutical companies, including weak human and institutional capacities and low technical capacity for using and applying new technologies.

“The Foundation was a pledge that Africa will have what it needs to build its own health defense system, which must include a thriving African pharmaceutical industry and a quality healthcare infrastructure, ADB President Dr Akinwumi Adesina said.

These solutions, according to experts, aim to close technical capacity gaps in their use and lack the ability to focus on the production of basic active pharmaceutical ingredients for drugs or antigens for vaccines.

Professor Padmashree Gehl Sampath, Chief Executive Officer of the APTF, told IPS that access to know-how, technologies, and processes for manufacturing pharmaceutical products is clearly needed on the continent to ensure the sustainability of financial investments.

She, however, points out that, with the current move to ensure the sustainability and reliability of the domestic pharmaceutical industry in Africa, it is not enough just to have financial, infrastructural, strategic, and regulatory support.

“There is a need for a clear and coherent focus on technology transfer and knowledge sharing for capacity building and diversification within the pharmaceutical value chain,” she said in an exclusive interview.

While technology is described as the main transformative tool that will enable the development of a competitive pharmaceutical industry in Africa, Sampath stresses the need to build policy capacity to facilitate the sector.

According to her, this can be done by implementing the flexibilities contained in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property and then also enabling local companies to access domestic markets.

In a move to overcome these challenges, the foundation’s work received a major boost with a memorandum of understanding signed in December 2023 in Kigali, Rwanda, to partner with the European Investment Bank.

The European Investment Bank will be a partner in the foundation’s “regional biosimilars program for the production and innovation of relevant biosimilars in Africa and to facilitate the creation of common active pharmaceutical ingredients parks in any chosen specific sub-region of Africa,” the organization said in a press release.

According to Sampath, there is a need to remove barriers to domestic innovation in Africa.

“We need to work with our universities and public research institutions to transform them into centers of excellence,” she said.

During the implementation phase, the first modular elements of the German company’s factory, BioNTech, based on shipping containers, were delivered to the Kigali construction site in March and were then assembled to form the so-called BioNTainers that were inaugurated in December 2023.

The company, which developed the most widely used COVID-19 vaccine in the Western world with its U.S. partner Pfizer, developed a plan in 2022 to allow African countries to produce its Comirnaty-branded vaccine under the supervision of BioNTech.

BioNTech said the initial vaccine factory could, over the next few years, be part of a wider supply network spanning several African countries, including Senegal and South Africa.

At the time BioNTech announced plans to expand into Africa, the shipment of coronavirus vaccine doses manufactured in the West to the continent had been delayed, which had been the subject of much criticism.

“The African Union has come together to make a firm commitment not to find ourselves in this situation again,” Rwandan President Paul Kagame said at the inauguration ceremony of the plant site located in Masoro, a suburb of Kigali.

The company, which developed the most widely used COVID-19 vaccine in the Western world with its U.S. partner Pfizer, developed a plan in 2022 to allow African countries to produce its Comirnaty-branded vaccine under the supervision of BioNTech.

“What BionTech’s partnership with Africa demonstrates is that vaccine technology can be democratized, but we could not have reached this point without a wider set of partnerships.” Kagame said.

Gelsomina Vigliotti, Vice President at the European Investment Bank, said that the bank is committed to working with its partners to strengthen public health and health innovation across Africa.

“Strengthening access to finance is essential to scaling up pharmaceutical investment and innovation across Africa,” Vigliotti said.

An important manifestation of Africa’s scientific and technological innovation capability, according to experts, is the application of innovations to its pharmaceutical industry development.

The newly-established plant, located in the suburb of Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali, is expected to start by producing 50 million vaccines, but production will increase depending on the demand for mRNA-based vaccine candidates to address malaria and tuberculosis.

But researchers and policymakers argue that trust and cooperation are critical for the successful implementation of this innovation.

The latest estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO) show that industrial development should be combined with national policy for universal health coverage so that local vaccine production can address local health needs.

Before the inauguration of the BionTech factory in Rwanda, there were fewer than 10 African manufacturers with vaccine production, which are based in five countries: Egypt, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, and Tunisia.

The capability to produce vaccines in Africa, according to the UN agency, requires a fully integrated approach, pulling together some key elements including finance, skills development, regulatory facilities, and technology know-how.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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A view of the UN Security Council as members voted in favour of a draft resolution on the crisis in Gaza, on 22 December 2023. The resolution was adopted, 13 votes in favour, with the US and Russia abstaining. The resolution, among other things, demanded immediate, safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian civilian population throughout the Gaza Strip. Credit: UN Photo/Loey Felipe

By Shihana Mohamed
NEW YORK, Jan 8 2024 (IPS)

Since October 9 2023, Israel’s war on Gaza has displaced over 1.8 million, according to UN estimates and killed almost 22,000 people in Gaza as of 2 January 2024, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. Hamas’ October 7 surprise attacks on Israel killed 1,200 people.

As gruesome as the war has been, the Israel-Hamas war has created an opportunity for the Israelis, Palestinians and the US as well as for the peace-loving global, regional and local players to advance peace prospects for solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In their open letter delivered to US President Joe Biden in mid-November 2023, The Elders, an international non-governmental organization of public figures founded by Nelson Mandela, said that, “You have a historic opportunity to help end the Israel-Palestine conflict permanently. As polarization increases, the world needs you to set out a vision for peace. That vision must give hope to those who reject extremism and want the violence to end. We urge you to do two things: set out a serious peace plan and help build a new coalition for peace to deliver it.”

Today there are three solutions to the Israel-Palestine conflict. The Israelis and Palestinians can kill each other; they can separate by creating two separate nations; or they can create one nation made up of two people.

On 1 November 2023, President Biden said that “when this crisis is over, there has to be a vision of what comes next, and in our view it has to be a two-state solution,” creating a sovereign Palestinian nation alongside the state of Israel.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on 8 December 2023 for an immediate end to the war in Gaza and an international peace conference to work out a lasting political solution leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

People clamour for food in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Continuing airstrikes were reported across Gaza last week and “intense ground battles” between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters in refugee camps in central areas that have reportedly left many dead. Credit: UNICEF/Abed Zagout

Presently, the only solution being discussed in depth is a two-state solution. This solution is based on separating both people into two separate and sovereign nations. The peace process during the Clinton administration (“Oslo agreement”) and the Bush administration (“The Road Map”) was based on this two-state solution, but ended in total failure. The Obama administration’s approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the same as past US administrations, and that effort also did not come close to bringing about a two-state solution. Perhaps, what caused the failure of these peace talks may be the solution itself rather than the involved parties.

The consequences of creating two separate nations by dividing Israel and Palestine were and still are difficult to accept for both Israelis and Palestinians. Currently, the perspectives have even further changed with the ongoing Israeli-Hamas war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a press conference on 16 December 2023 that, he was “proud’ he had prevented the establishment of a Palestinian state and took credit for “putting brakes” on the Oslo peace process.

From the point of view of many Israelis, the two-state solution is difficult because they would have to give up their religious and historical attachments to the West Bank and Gaza which they call Judea and Samaria. From the point of view of the Palestinians, the two-state solution is difficult because they have historical, religious and emotional attachments not only to the West Bank and Gaza but also to Israel which they call the lands of 1948 after the year they lost it to present day Israel. It is a fact that both Israelis and Palestinians have religious, historical and emotional attachments to every square inch of the land that includes Israel and Palestine.

In light of the attachments that both parties have for the same territory, the solution is not in separating but in coming closer together. Many Israelis and Palestinians seem to agree that the land they call Israel/Palestine is indivisible.

Thus, the solution lies in keeping the land that Israelis and Palestinians call home as one nation while at the same time providing each side with the security and the individuality the parties would have if they had their own separate nations.

Since the Palestinian and Israeli populations are so intermingled and about 1.8 million Palestinians live throughout Israel, the feasibility of a bi-national state, with the two peoples living in a kind of federation, seems workable. Given this “reality” on the ground, the most practical solution seems to be a united democratic state offering equal citizenship for all: One Person, One Vote. Palestinians and Israelis would be in a unified state, relying on historic precedents like South Africa and Northern Ireland.

Therefore, a Two State-One Nation solution based on equality, freedom and civil rights for both Israelis and Palestinians is the most practical and suitable approach to resolve the conflict between Palestine and Israel. The idea behind this solution is that there will be two sovereign states similar to New York and New Jersey that together make one nation similar to the United States of America.

However, rather than being a federation it would be a confederation. The main difference between a federation and a confederation is that the states in a confederacy have much more sovereignty than in a federation.

The proposed Two State-One Nation solution should be negotiated through a “democratic” model which uses public, multiparty negotiating forums to conduct negotiations. The only firm rule is that the forum will exclude any party that has not ended or at least suspended efforts to achieve its political objectives through violence. The “democrat” model was used successfully in the talks that brought about the end of apartheid in South Africa in the early 1990s, and which ended the “troubles” in Northern Ireland in the late 1990s.

This solution may not be perfect. However, this proposed solution may be the only solution that will give the Palestinians and Israelis most of what they want while at the same time allowing both people to keep their individual identities and live as one nation. The prospect of a unitary democratic state offers integration, security, development and a mode of life far more conducive to the modern world.

The birth of the non-racial democracy in South Africa and the implementation of the power sharing arrangement in Northern Ireland have strengthened the belief that portioning is not the inevitable, nor necessarily the most desirable resolution to the conflict. Hence, the proposed Two State-One Nation vision is not only desirable but an achievable solution to end the conflict between Palestine and Israel.

The technical know-how of Israel, the available capital in the Arab world and a geography that is at the intersection of three continents can produce an economic powerhouse that is second to none on a per capita basis. This solution will enable all people in the Middle East to enjoy peace, stability and full security.

Of course, it is difficult to see the possibility of a Two State-One Nation solution now with the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Before it happens, many more people are going to be killed. But like every other war, this one will end too.

And there would be a day after this war. So, it is time to end this century-old conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis.

Shihana Mohamed, a Sri Lankan national, is one of the Coordinators of the United Nations Asia Network for Diversity and Inclusion and a Public Voices Fellow with The OpEd Project and Equality Now. She has done extensive research on current issues in the Middle East.
The views expressed in this article represent the personal views of the author.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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