Morocco reiterated, Friday in Addis Ababa, its support to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), by making available its experience and capacity building services to professionals from all over Africa, on the occasion of the 43rd session of the AU Permanent Representatives Committee (PRC), preparatory to the next sessions of the AU Executive Council and Summit, scheduled from 02 to 06 February in the Ethiopian capital.
“Morocco reiterates its support to Africa CDC by making available its experience, expertise and capacity building services to professionals throughout Africa, as well as best practices in storage, distribution and use of vaccines,” said Permanent Representative of the Kingdom to the AU and UNECA, ambassador Mohamed Arrouchi, before this session convened by video conference.
The Moroccan diplomat, who was speaking on the progress report on the operational implementation of the Africa CDC, added that the Kingdom supports the recommendations made by the Committee calling notably for the immediate implementation of administrative measures to make the CDC operational while emphasizing the structural and governance challenges through amendments to the Statutes.
Morocco also praises the important role played by Africa CDC, within its current mandate, and strongly encourages future coordination between Africa CDC and the African Medicines Agency (AMA), the Moroccan delegation stressed, noting that the Kingdom is also aware of the urgency of operationalizing Africa CDC and calls for more flexibility during this exercise.
“The issue of health security must remain at the center of our priorities,” said Arrouchi who praised the intense and permanent commitment of Africa CDC and the professionalism it has shown since the announcement of the first case of coronavirus in the continent in February 2020.
“Morocco is aware of the programmatic, administrative, and governance challenges faced by Africa CDC. The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the fragility of our continent’s health systems and revealed a deeper and more urgent need to improve disease prevention and effectiveness in responding to health emergencies,” the Moroccan diplomat noted.
The Covid-19 pandemic “also reminds us how important it is to strengthen our health systems and build a common vision for Africa based on concrete and reasonable solutions in order to achieve peace and overcome the socio-economic challenges generated by the pandemic,” he added, stressing the need to provide Africa “with a strong specialized Health Agency, with a clear and coherent structure and with all the means to enable it to act immediately on health emergencies threatening the continent”.
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