5 May 2022

Following Africa’s Lead

Strengthening national and regional pandemic defenses

On 13 April 2022, the Paris Peace Forum and Pandemic Action Network co-hosted — with the support of the French Presidency of the European Union — a roundtable attended by a range of high-level policymakers, health experts, and practitioners from different institutions and organizations. Its composition aimed to gather diverse perspectives from health agencies, delivery organizations, government, research institutions, foundations, the private sector, and civil society, each involved in the health agenda between the European Union and the African Union.

The discussion was structured under three workstreams addressing regional cooperation and partnerships for production capacities, with a general focus on strengthening health systems. Each workstream had a set of guiding questions shared in advance with participants. The discussion was held under the Chatham House rule, and as such, neither the list of attendees nor the remarks explicitly attributed to them will be shared.

The first part summarizes the key takeaways of the roundtable, and the second includes a series of recommendations from the two co-hosting organizations — Pandemic Action Network and the Paris Peace Forum — inspired by the discussion.