Health, welfare and prosperity: an EU-Africa partnership for a people-centred approach to human development

COVID-19 has shown the world that solidarity among nations and regions is crucial, with Europe and Africa taking a lead in practical cooperation to contain the pandemic and mitigate its economic impact, speakers at the latest ‘Debating Africa-EU’ online event said Thursday.

“Multilateralism is vital to our success and we need to work together, with all the European Union agencies, with the WHO, [and] of course all of the agencies on the African continent,” (20:30) said Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for Health.

“Viruses know no borders and we really need to pull together and support each other in every corner of the globe to come out of this pandemic,” (20:58) she added.

Kyriakides was among senior officials from the European Union and African Union who are joining key stakeholders, business figures and civil society representatives from both continents in the ‘Debating Africa-EU’ series. This is intended to feed into preparations for the AU-EU summit scheduled next year.

Besides cooperation among public authorities, speakers from both Africa and Europe highlighted the importance of authorities working together with the private sector. They pointed to success stories which have boosted access to protective equipment and medicines in Europe and set up a digital platform for medical purchases in Africa.

To further boost the anti-pandemic fight, companies on both sides of the Mediterranean should team up more, argued Amira Mohammed El Fadil, African Union Commissioner for Social Affairs.

“We need links between [the] private sector in Europe [and] Africa, this is what we need to speak about … how can we make sure, within the partnership, we can link the two,” she told the debate.

There was broad agreement for increased funding to produce a vaccine against the coronavirus and for longer-term efforts to improve disease prevention and healthcare post-COVID-10.

Those efforts should be included in a broader drive to bolster African development, which has been set back by the pandemic, and to ensure recovery plans embrace the needs of young people, women and migrants.

To help accelerate that development, the EU-Africa summit is due to adopt a strategy focused on the green transition and digital transformation that takes relations between the two continents to a new level, well beyond the traditional focus on aid.

“I am very proud of our Team Europe response in Africa. We have, collectively with our member states […] allocated around €8 bn in support to Africa, but it is our job now to look to the long-term solutions, especially for Africa’s youth,” (2:47) said Jutta Urpilainen, European Commissioner for International Partnerships.

“We must drive forward social and human development with new opportunities. Those opportunities are the green and digital transformations … as well as the African demographic development.”