Marrakesh's first African Conference of Health Harm Reduction closes with joint declaration

The first African Conference of Health Harm Reduction held in Marrakesh closed today and was attended by more than 500 experts in the health sector from 60 countries.

The conference started Wednesday and saw the participation of important personalities, African and international experts, and professionals.

The conference’s Declaration saw a number of key recommendations :

• Promote and strengthen health systems on the African continent by adopting a risk reduction approach.
• Improve the daily living conditions of all citizens, by improving the environment in which individuals are born, grow, live and age, through the transformation of health systems, ethical harm reduction strategies, and harm reduction innovations for known health risks.
• Develop health care policies in Africa, focused on universal patient-citizen medical coverage and respect equitable access to quality health care as a fundamental human right.
• Promote social protection mechanisms and ensure access to quality and affordable essential health services, including pharmaceutical drugs and traditional and natural medicines.
• Present the response strategies to the Covid-19 epidemic and draw lessons that will serve as examples for the implementation of an effective, collaborative and resilient health care system in Africa.
• Promote and strengthen health systems on the African continent by adopting a risk reduction approach.
• Improve the daily living conditions of all citizens, by improving the environment in which individuals are born, grow, live and age, through the transformation of health systems, ethical harm reduction strategies and harm reduction innovations for known health risks.
• Develop health care policies in Africa, focused on universal patient-citizen medical coverage and respect equitable access to quality health care as a fundamental human right.
• Promote social protection mechanisms and ensure access to quality and affordable essential health services, including pharmaceutical drugs and traditional and natural medicines.
• Present the response strategies to the Covid-19 epidemic and draw lessons that will serve as examples for the implementation of an effective, collaborative and resilient health care system in Africa.
• Develop an African health risk reduction charter based on a multi-stakeholder vision, as an essential step for the sovereign transformation of health systems in an African environment that favors solidarity and cooperation in the service of health security for all citizens and all African citizens.
• Hold an annual conference to ensure the continuation and acceleration of efforts to improve universal health coverage for all on the African continent.

The participants in this debate stressed, according to the Marrakesh Declaration, that “the engineering of Africa’s future cannot be expected from others,” and that “our future will be built by us,” and that “Africa has all the qualifications to be a pioneer.”

During the Conference, round tables were scheduled on several themes: “cardiovascular diseases, oncology, tobacco, sugar obesity”, “social factors of health in Africa” “Mental health and addictions: education and teaching”, “Health financing, state responsibility and financial sustainability”, “How to make a success of the medical cannabis in Africa” and the “place of the medicine of the future in Africa: regenerative medicine, digitization-telemedicine, intelligence and connected care.”