The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and the government of France have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen their cooperation in public health. The MoU was signed by Dr Jean Kaseya, Director-General of Africa CDC, and Rémi Maréchaux, Ambassador of France to Ethiopia, at a ceremony held at the Africa CDC Secretariat Offices in Addis Ababa.

The MoU aims to strengthen Africa CDC’s efforts to build more robust public health systems and improve health security across the continent. Key areas of collaboration under the MoU include strengthening Africa CDC’s capacity; supporting the development of national public health institutes; enhancing disease surveillance and emergency response capacities; promoting local manufacturing of vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics; supporting workforce training; and fostering research partnerships between French and African institutions.

This MoU builds on France’s longstanding support for public health in Africa. France played a leading role in launching the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator and has donated 10 million vaccine doses to the AVAT mechanism and 48 million doses to 40 African states, mainly through the COVAX initiative aimed at equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. The French Development Agency provided a €50 million line of credit to Afreximbank for the AVAT payment facility, enabling vaccine purchases by Uganda, Burundi, DRC and Egypt. The AFD has committed over €500 million to health programmes in Africa through its ” Santé en Commun ” (Health in Common) initiative. France also provides technical expertise to Africa CDC in infection, prevention and control (IPC) and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).