Pan-African Working Group showcases Africa’s ability to independently address its health challenges

With Africa’s historic resilience in healthcare predating colonial influence, the Pan-African Working Group is pursuing an initiative that seeks to showcase Africa’s ability as a continent to independently address its health challenges.

According to the group, Africa thrived in managing health crises before the arrival of colonial powers and it’s time to honor that legacy and assert our sovereignty in healthcare delivery.

They are calling for African leaders to revisit the WHO treaty amidst neglected diseases where the pandemic underscores the urgency of reclaiming control over the continent’s health destiny, ensuring that Africa’s rich traditions of healthcare self-sufficiency are honored and revitalized.

“Over the years, due to colonization we’ve had a drive towards western biomedicine, what we refer to as orthodox medicine. It is not bad, it is good. Orthodox medicine has contributed immensely to the welfare and growth of Africans and those in the lower income countries. However, we have missed out a great deal because we have not been able to explore what nature had bequeathed to us, what our indigenous knowledge has bequeathed to us to be able to develop scientifically our local herbal knowledge” Prof Samuel Adugyamfi a senior political and history lecturer at KNUST said.

One of the central themes of the discourse is the unintended repercussions Africans face as an outcome of the policies of the “Super powers”.

Taking into consideration stringent lockdown measures which were implemented with the noble intention of safeguarding public health, these policies have deceptively plunged vulnerable communities into deeper economic despair.

From the thoughts shared by Prof David bell from Leeds university, the fallacy of increasing pandemic and public health has been used as a tool for extracting wealth thereby terming such individuals as “Covid billionaires”.

As indicated by the group, our healthcare systems have been stretched thin, with resources diverted to pandemic response and it’s time to prioritize our own healthcare needs and reclaim control over our destinies.

As calls for a reevaluation of global health policies reverberate, particularly in light of the WHO’s role in shaping pandemic responses, it’s evident that a paradigm shift is needed through collective action which prioritizes both public health and individual rights.

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