Medicines for Africa I The Art of Intelligent Cooperation I Utano Newsletter I May 2024

Medicines for Africa I What is the intelligent cooperation that Africa needs to achieve its health goals?

We asked Tata Jay Naidoo on Utano Podcast what Ubuntu means to him and how it can help Africa achieve its development goals including health development. He spoke about the type of intelligent cooperation that Africa needs to make sure the African dream of prosperity tis realized" Here is what he said.

"Intelligent cooperation is the only way in which we get results. Until Africa deals with this issue of governance and leadership and come to our African agenda, whoever comes into Africa will manipulate that agenda to suit them. But if we were organized and we have an African agenda, then we will welcome the competition in a way that benefits African people....so Ubuntu is the notion of what is the intelligent cooperation we need to have that makes sure that the African dream of an Africa at peace with itself, where we are not the epicentre of hunger, where our children have a pathway of hope and opportunity is possible. Until we master the art of intelligent cooperation, Africa's agenda will always be vulnerable to manipulation by others.

Medicines for Africa I Who is on the African Medicines Agency's Inaugural Board of Directors?

The board of Directors of the African Medicines Agency's was appointed on Monday 22 April 2024. More Africans might have celebrated this milestone has they been aware because it takes the African continent closer to the realization of an ambitious project that is crucial to Africa's health security. The custodians of an institution of such great importance to the health and well being of Africans remain virtually unknown to Africans. Who are these leaders? What qualifies them to lead our most important institution and what have they achieved? What do they stand for and what are their aspirations for the African Medicines Agency? Such questions should matter to Africans, but so far Africans know little about these leaders.

But here is what we know. We know that the countries that are represented on the Board include Benin, Egypt, the Kingdom of Lesotho and Rwanda. We know that one regional organisation, the West African Health organization is also represented. The Chair of the board is Dr Yossounon CHABI , the Directeur Général of the @Agence Béninoise du Médicament et des autres produits de santé (ABRP) for the next three years. We also know that Egypt's board member is the assistant Minister of Health for Public Health Projects and Initiatives Mohamed Hassani. The representative from Lesotho is Madame Germina Mphoso , a Senior Pharmacist (Director of Pharmaceuticals) at the Ministry of Health Lesotho and The Director General of Rwanda FDA Prof. Emile Bienvenu is also on this board representing National regulatory Authorities of East Africa. Chad is represented by Dr Haroun Saker Haoua and the 6th member is Dr Melchior Athanase Aissi who represents the West African Health Organisation.

The nomination of the AMA board is a big opportunity to further Africa's goals of strengthening its regulatory environment for medicines, for the development of its medicines and vaccine manufacturing industry and keeping African patients safe from counterfeited substandard medicines. The African Medicines Agency will not replace National Regulatory Authorities. Instead, it will complement and strengthen them by focusing on more complex functions. The agency will depend on experts from national agencies to undertake its scientific work. The African Medicines Agency will build on continental standards and processes benchmarking international standards and best practices. The Director General of the African Medicines Agency is expected to be in office by November 2024.

Know more about the AMA here: https://pharmaboardroom.com/interviews/lenias-hwenda-founder-ceo-medicines-for-africa/

Reflections of An African Elder: Tata Jay Naidoo

medicines for africa (mfa) came across this post made by one of our highly esteemed African elders, Tata Jay Naidoo of South Africa. Read his reflections below in which he talks about his experience growing up in South Africa and how he sees the same patterns reflected in contemporary decisions by global powers. In his own words below, he talks of the importance of charting their own path.

"Growing up in apartheid SA one is intensely aware of #racism. Especially when it is unspoken. Those indiscretions are the most painful. It’s in their eyes, their energy vibrations, their porous fear.

But then I realize that it’s deep in western culture. It’s roots span millennia. And it has intergenerationally bred a deep incestuous fearful strain more virulent than the Queen Corona. And so when the #omicronvariant was discovered by South African scientists the conclusion jumped to was that it originated in #Africa. And all the stereotypes were cast widely.

Incessant official phone calls. Always pointing out that this #southernafrican variant was dangerous. And requirement to do two COVID tests to earn the privilege of visiting family in #Canada.

Yet evidence emerging was that it reared its head in several European countries and anecdotally that it was #Europeanvisitors that brought it to #Botswana. But the cacophony of #fakenews in the west was an echo chamber of #microwavejournalism and #prejudice.

No this was not accidental as apologists argue. It’s a deep pattern of the many sinful things that happened during the #crusades of #slavery and #colonialism. The genocides against #indigenouspeople was a deliberate erasure of other superior cultures living in sync with Mother Nature. And the imposition of a #dominantwesternculture which wages war on #alternativeparadigms of how we live in harmony on #MotherEarth.

As a good friend from Nigeria and comrade Bayo Akomolafe said, “The slave ship still exists.today.” It’s integrated into the political and economic systems. It’s cultural. It’s in the DNA of mainstream media. It’s oozing pus corrodes the global social fabric. It’s in the immigration policies. It’s in employment. It’s in the border customs that randomly selects primarily people of color for additional questioning.

So the sooner we realize we are on our own the better we will carve our own path. One that draws from our civilizations, culture, commerce, wisdom and spiritual belief systems before we were colonised. And we need to go back to our roots. To stop being a poor photocopy of Hollywoodized sanitised persona. To understand into what makes us African. And deeper still what it means to be Human.

It’s time for #Africa to write its own stories. And through our lens not the tarnished rose tinted eyes of people who walk in fear of us. That is their journey. The blood of our ancestors still soaks the lands of the colonised. The ancestral rage tears their #socialfabric in these societies. Exhibiting in irrational fear that shoots black people in the back metaphorically and in reality. It’s a wound that can only be healed when it is acknowledged. When the unbearable blindness of whiteness is excised. And new sight is revealed of the Other. And for narrow nationalists in #Africa let me remind you of a poignant wisdom of Kwame Nkrumah, “ I am African, not because I am born in Africa. Because Africa is born in me.”

The words of Jay Naidoo, Former Minister of Development and Minister of Communication in the Cabinet of President Nelson Mandela.

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