Tuesday, Sep. 10, 10:00 a.m. East Africa Time via Zoom

As part of its international Save Our Society (SOS) campaign, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) Africa will host a virtual press conference via Zoom on Tuesday, Sep. 10 at 10:00 a.m. East Africa Time – Equity for Africa in Pandemic Agreement Talks. Click here to register.

Public health experts and advocates will discuss how health equity in Africa and globally is undermined by Global North leaders putting the interests and profits of pharmaceutical companies over lives, particularly in lower-income countries.

The SOS campaign urges the Global South to unite to establish regional production capacity for vaccines, diagnostics, therapeutics, and other lifesaving countermeasures. Equity demands binding provisions to achieve this through the WHO Pandemic Agreement.

“It’s vital that world leaders adopt a Pandemic Agreement that establishes concrete mechanisms for the regional production of pandemic-related health products in the Global South. This requires equity, securing sustainable, long-term financing, and a binding roadmap for the transfer of know-how and technology,” said AHF Africa Bureau Chief Dr. Penninah Iutung. “In collaboration with partners and communities, AHF’s Save Our Society campaign is ramping up advocacy in Africa and worldwide to urge decision makers to adopt a Pandemic Agreement that serves all countries – not just the super-rich and Big Pharma. African countries and other nations struggling to prepare for the next global public health disaster cannot afford to repeat what happened during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Beyond vaccines, regional production includes access to diagnostics, therapeutics, personal protective equipment, and other essential countermeasures. This approach will empower regions to become self-reliant and not depend on the Global North to care for its people.

Critical to the upcoming Pandemic Agreement talks in Geneva is linking the Agreement’s Article 11 (technology transfer) and Article 12 (the World Health Organization’s Pathogen Access and Benefits Sharing System (PABS)) to require that manufacturers who benefit from PABS commit to the equitable transfer of technology for production in the Global South. This should be done in addition to the annual financial contributions and the percentages to be set aside through benefit-sharing provisions.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is a global nonprofit organization providing cutting-edge medicine and advocacy to more than 2 million people in 47 countries worldwide in Africa, the Americas, the Asia/Pacific Region and Europe. We are currently the largest non-profit provider of HIV/AIDS medical care in the world. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare and Instagram: @aidshealthcare

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