More needs to be done to boost the research and development capabilities crucial to countries succeeding in manufacturing vaccines locally.

Listen to this article 7 min Listen to this article 7 min Prioritising local vaccine manufacturing, distribution, and roll-out remains crucial to addressing some of the challenges faced by the African continent's health systems. Ensuring that vulnerable communities have access to life-saving health innovations will not only ensure that millions of people live longer but also yield economic benefits for developing economies.

The African health landscape faces several complex challenges that call on all of us to act with the utmost urgency. Some of the challenges stem from colonialism and persist to this day, such as malnutrition, social inequality, uncoordinated regulatory bodies, poor health infrastructure development and the decline in funding for healthcare by governments.

While all of these issues and challenges have been identified and progress made to address them as envisioned in the Framework of Actions (FAS) which seeks to strengthen healthcare systems for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for Africa, the Covid-19 pandemic exposed the vulnerabilities that persist in many health systems on the continent.

Adding to the challenges is the climate emergency which has increased emerging infectious diseases that have spread outside their endemic locations. In the past decade...