Enhancing Health Security & Resilience: Opportunities, Gaps & Challenges in East Africa's Healthcare Supply Chains

On February 22, Corporate Council on Africa’s member Xetova, in partnership with CCA, Safaricom, the Africa Resource Center and the Kenyan Ministry of Health, hosted the Africa Healthcare Supply Chain Dialogue session in Nairobi. This session brought together senior officials from the Kenyan, Rwandan and Congolese Governments, the East African Community and the African Union, a wide range of health and information companies, donors and NGOs and technical experts from the African CDC and the UN Economic Commission for Africa. Sessions examined lessons learned from the disruptions to supply chains during the COVID-19 crisis, and considered solutions to make East African health systems more resilient for future crises.There was broad agreement that the pandemic has created a number of important opportunities that should be built on. Throughout the sessions, it was clear that greater incorporation of data and information into planning will lead to better decisions and improve health outcomes. There was a clear sense that a lot of the innovations made during the pandemic should be continued, including measures to facilitate greater cross-border trade in health goods and services and the development of a number of innovative new health services, including telemedicine, and in-home health care. There was consensus that countries should support greater private sector investment in local manufacturing of vaccines, medicines and equipment, although these measures need to be coordinated to prevent multiple countries pursuing the same targets. It is also important to think about investments in new ways, starting with what patients need (rather than what supply chains can push) and putting in place the right regulations, harmonized standards and investment provisions to support commercially viable projects.Lastly, there is also scope to strengthen primary health care centers, and make innovative use of tools like insurance to deliver better health outcomes. CCA’s Laird Treiber moderated the final panel, which featured insights and suggestions from General Electric and Astra Zeneca, as well as USAID, on how best to capture the innovations from the pandemic and build a stronger health care system in Africa. Xetova plans to hold future sessions in Ghana and South Africa.