The Serum Institute of India has become the inaugural funder of an African Union-led initiative that aims to strengthen and build the African continent’s health workforce.
The world’s largest vaccine manufacturer has provided $2.5 million in initial funding to kickstart the initiative called the African Union’s Health Workforce Task Team, which aims to “build a fit-for-purpose health workforce that can sustain Universal Health Coverage in Africa.”
Why it matters: The money will be used to support the work of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and Seed Global Health, a nonprofit that helps train doctors, nurses, and midwives in low-resource settings.
Adar Poonawalla, CEO at SII, said in a news release that his company has a long history of providing health care support on the continent, including billions of vaccines for diseases such as measles and polio. But the COVID-19 pandemic also underscored the need for “life-saving health workers to administer them.”
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What’s next: Poonawalla said the “announcement should also act as a global rallying cry to governments, charities and companies alike to step forward and contribute to this historic process and empower the experts at the African Union and Seed Global Health to make this lasting systemic change.”
“This will not only help to ensure more people in Africa get vaccinated to finally end the acute phase of Covid-19 and also prepare the continent for the health threats of tomorrow,” he said.
Cyril Ramaphosa, president of South Africa, welcomed the funding and called on other businesses, donors, and investors to follow SII’s example.
About the author
Jenny Lei Ravelo@JennyLeiRavelo
Jenny Lei Ravelo is a Devex Senior Reporter based in Manila. She covers global health, with a particular focus on the World Health Organization, and other development and humanitarian aid trends in Asia Pacific. Prior to Devex, she wrote for ABS-CBN, one of the largest broadcasting networks in the Philippines, and was a copy editor for various international scientific journals. She received her journalism degree from the University of Santo Tomas.
