The European Union (EU) – African Union (AU) Summit on February 17-18, 2022, is a key moment for AU and EU leaders to show solidarity in ending not only the COVID-19 pandemic but also responding to historical epidemics including HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria and put in place mechanisms and resources to build resilience and prepare for future pandemics. We urge for strong and sustained political will, collective alignment, and integrated end-to-end approaches. To this end, the undersigned African and European CSOs and others in solidarity call on leaders to take the following actions at the Summit:
- Tackle the crisis of inequitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, and support vaccination programs ;
- Address the crisis of inequitable access to COVID-19 tools including tests, treatments, oxygen and PPE ;
- Invest in and strengthen the research and development (R&D) capacity in Africa ;
- Support Africa’s mRNA Technology Transfer Hub and agree to waive intellectual property (IP) for COVID-19 vaccines and other medical tools ;
- Support health systems strengthening in African countries to enable prevention, detection, and response to new and existing threats ;
- Reform and strengthen multilateralism.