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The 28th session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly

By 5 December 2014No Comments

Global Health Advocates was present at the 28th session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA), which took place in Strasbourg on 1-3 December 2014. The Assembly brought together Members of the European Parliament and Parliamentarians from African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries to discuss a broad range of development issues.

This year, discussion was very much focused on the Ebola emergency. At the time of writing, more than seven thousands people died of Ebola, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. In addition to reported Ebola deaths, there are thousands of other people who are dying due to the lack of access to hospitals and the lack of medical personnel caused by the emergency. The discussion highlighted concerns about the time will take to affected countries to recover and restart their development.

Parliamentarians had also the opportunity to discuss the EU’s response to the Ebola crisis with European Commissioner for Development Mimica. Several of them called for an increased use of EU development money to support health system strengthening in affected countries and in their neighbouring countries to avoid the spread of the epidemic. Commissioner Mimica declared he is personally in favour of revising the choice of priorities for the countries in the region which did not choose health as a priority sector of their cooperation with the EU.

Malnutrition was also in the agenda of the 28th session of the JPA. A report on the social and economic consequences of malnutrition in ACP countries was discussed and approved. The European Commission stressed that malnutrition remains the biggest development challenge in the world. In light of this, 28 ACP countries chose nutrition and food security as a priority sector of their cooperation with the EU.  A side-event on malnutrition was also organised by CONCORD on Monday 1st December.

During the JPA, Global Health Advocates set up an information stand of the European Parliament Working Group on Innovation, Access to Medicines and Poverty-Related Diseases, which was well visited by both MEPs and MPs from ACP countries. At the stand, a media corner was set up for decision-makers to stress their messages on global health issues. Take a look at what MEPs were calling for.

 

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MEP Rivasi

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MEP Theocharous

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MEP McAvan

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European Commissioner for Development Mimica

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MEP Bearder

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MPs from Sierra Leone

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MPs from Guinea Bissau

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MEP Kyenge