Local manufacturing, local supply chains and health security in Africa: Lessons from COVID-19

Abstract

• African commentators have long emphasised the importance of local manufacturing for local health security, but the argument has struggled to gain an international hearing.

• COVID-19 has, however, demonstrated the health dangers from extreme import dependence and low purchasing power; it has also shown the scope and capability for local industrial innovation.

• Local innovation and manufacturing scale-up during the pandemic was facilitated by adaptable government procurement policies and a health research base with strong links to manufacturing.

• Constraints included lack of local testing and accreditation facilities, and skill and finance shortages.

• African researchers and planners should be heard and supported when focusing on localising supply chains and tackling severe concentration risk in the interests of local health security.

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© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/'>http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/'>http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

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DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006362

Repository URI

https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publications/3e4c7166-7f2e-4c0b-9d47-06d8bcc5bb80