Five African blocs, one shopping list: buying medical supplies together

In Lusaka, Zambia, five of Africa's regional blocs — IGAD, SADC, COMESA, the East African Community and ECCAS — sat down together from 14 to 16 October and agreed on a simple idea: stop buying medical supplies country by country, crisis by crisis. Their adopted recommendations call for a joint financing compact, pooled procurement with shared demand forecasting and long-term purchasing agreements, and coordinated investment in making health products on the continent, with support from the UN Economic Commission for Africa and the World Health Organization. The same plan strengthens cross-border disease surveillance, regional laboratories and field-epidemiology training, under a health-emergency programme that covers 11 countries and runs to March 2030. The point is predictability: when local manufacturers can see steady demand, they can afford to build — and the next outbreak meets stocked shelves, not empty ones.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: institutional program