The 5th Calestous Juma Executive Dialogue on Innovation and Emerging Technologies (CJED) was held from the 22nd to the 23rd of September 2021 under the theme: EFFECTIVELY HARNESSING AFRICA’S HEALTH RESEARCH, INVESTMENT, AND INNOVATION IN ADDRESSING THE PANDEMIC.

As the 5th  in a series of high-level stakeholder engagements across the continent, the dialogue focused on how health research and enhanced investment towards innovation and emerging technologies can help African countries combat the COVID-19 pandemic. This dialogue was organised in collaboration with the Universities of Oxford and Cape Town under the auspices of the UKRI GCRF Accelerate Hub.

It enabled senior policy and decision-makers to carry out knowledge and national experience sharing and networking towards developing improved health systems that can adequately fight the COVID-19 pandemic. It further sought to relevantly address some of the challenges that confront African countries and seize opportunities presented towards a deeper understanding of the complexities required to harness innovation and emerging technologies in Africa towards addressing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In her welcome and opening remarks, Dr Justina Dugbazah, Ag. Coordinator of the AUDA-NEPAD/APET-CJED noted that “every year this dialogue brings together experts and professionals from various endeavours to chart new ways for driving innovation and emerging technologies, research and investment, among other issues, for the acceleration of Africa’s development.” The pandemic has highlighted the importance of the very tenet and theme of this Dialogue, which is research and investment for the collective well-being of the African people, she added. We have been compelled to embrace our innovative capabilities to meet existing commitments in new ways of working. She emphasised that AUC, AUDA-NEPAD, APET and Oxford University, UCT and other stakeholders are working through the Calestous Juma Executive Dialogue to advocate for increased investment and commitment of African leadership in harnessing research, investment and innovation and emerging technologies for accelerated progress in health.

Prof Lucie Cluver, Principal Investigator, UKRI GCRF Accelerate Hub, in her opening remarks, welcomed participants to the dialogue and was hopeful that these deliberations would go a long way to sharpen discussions on health research and investment on the African continent. She underscored the commitment of Oxford University and UKRI GCRF Accelerate hub to improve life outcomes for African children and adolescents by integrating research excellence, capacity sharing, policy partnerships, and service delivery.

The Keynote address was given by Mr Paul Tanui, Senior Programme Officer - Health, on behalf of Dr Margareth Ndomondo-Sigonda - Head of Health Programmes, both at AUDA-NEPAD.  Giving the remarks, Mr Paul Tanui noted that “prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, African countries had begun efforts to build national systems that promote science, technology & innovation (STI) in line with three agendas: the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA-2024), the AU Agenda 2063 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but the majority of all medicines and PPEs in Africa were still being imported from Asia and Europe. Africa accounts for 24% of the global disease burden, but only contributes to 3% of the global medicine production and imports 95% of its medical product needs.”

Mr. Tanui further reiterated that the Africa Union established the Africa Task Force for Coronavirus (AFTCOR) to spearhead the response to COVID-19 under the auspices of Africa CDC. Africa has also participated in the Research and Innovation space. Some of the innovations coming from Africa include the establishment of innovative ways and diagnostic technologies that have improved analytical and decision-making processes to reduce transmission. A number of African countries are also manufacturing portable ventilators and PPEs designed by local innovators.

The 1st day of the executive dialogue entailed an introduction of the African Union High Level Panel on Innovation and Emerging Technologies (APET) to delegates. It also introduced the recommended technologies earmarked by APET to promote Africa’s socio-economic development and growth. Delegates further discussed health research and financing suitable for addressing COVID-19 pandemic challenges across the African continent. In addition, the Executive Dialogue explored available opportunities towards bolstering health investments necessary for fighting the COVID-19 pandemic across the African continent.

The UKRI GCRF Accelerate Hub had a presentation on “Young lives under pressure: experiences of health, well-being and service access among adolescents and young people during the COVID-19 pandemic” and a panel discussion on “Combatting COVID’s harshest challenges for children: a focus on sexual violence and COVID-associated orphanhood”. Together, these discussions provided insights on youth and adolescent health on the continent in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and what efforts are being sustained by the hub in addressing them.

Prof. Aggrey Ambali, the technical advisor to the AU Development Fund, introduced delegates to “Domestic Health Investment initiatives in Africa undertaken by the AU and other development agencies”. He noted that Under the leadership of H.E Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda, the AU Commission convened global and continental health leaders, Heads of States and Governments in Addis Ababa on the 9th of February 2019 for the African Leadership Meeting (ALM) - Investing in Health on the side-lines of the AU Summit. In these discussions, African Heads of States and Governments, among other things, committed to increase domestic investment in health and measure progress against benchmarks.

On day 2, participants were introduced to two African innovators; Mr Yusuf Bilesanmi, Founder and Innovator, ShiVent, NIGERIA and Ms Juka Fatou Darboe, Founder and Innovator, Make3D Company Limited, Gambia. These two innovators harnessed emerging technologies to design cost-effective incubators for hospitals and cost-effective prosthetics for the physically impaired, respectively. The 2nd day of the dialogue also included discussions on harnessing technologies like gene drive for malaria control through the AUDA-NEPAD Integrated Vector management programme. Discussions also bordered on bolstering vaccine manufacturing, utilisation, and roll-out to address the COVID-19 pandemic with a recommendation to focus on forging private-public partnerships necessary for enhancing the development of robust health innovations and emerging technologies.

Prof John Mugabe, Professor of Science and Innovation Policy at the Graduate School of Technology Management (GSTM), University of Pretoria, gave a riveting presentation on “Political Economy of Innovation Policy Making in Africa.” He noted that broadening constituencies for innovation policy by bringing political and civic actors to open, non-technocratic, transparent and participatory policy-making processes will help African countries to move from ‘innovation policy hype’ to ‘innovation policy practice. He recommended that there’s an urgent need to focus on building state capacity to engage and manage innovation policy-making; helping countries to accumulate skills for innovation policy analysis; reducing over-reliance on ‘experts’ with limited understanding of local political and social conditions.

In summary, the following are some recommendations from the discussions at the 5th CJED:

1. African countries should bolster research, development, and innovation to address pandemic challenges. This can increase the output of emerging technologies that can provide solutions for African people’s everyday activities.  
2. The COVID-19 has exposed Africa’s vulnerability in accessing vital PPE, vaccines, and medicine. Therefore, African governments should do more towards harnessing innovation and emerging technologies in mitigating the impact of the pandemic across the continent. Africa needs enhance it’s crisis preparedness by investing in STI-related activities to mitigate the effects of future pandemics and endemics.   
3. African governments should increase the capacity to produce pharmaceuticals instead of relying on imported vaccines and medicine. Interventions should be put in place to increase local production, trading, research, development, and innovation, and regulatory frameworks.
4. The COVID-19 pandemic has also increased violence against children within the global discourse. As such, more orphans have been observed because of dying parents and caregivers. Unfortunately, this has led to increased child abuse, more especially the orphans.  For young girls, more especially vulnerable adolescents and youth living with HIV/AIDS, the COVID-19 crisis has posed a considerable risk to their health, well-being, healthcare, education, employment, mental health, and disposable income.  Therefore, more needs to be done by government leaders and relevant stakeholders to address such challenges.
5. African Governments should increase domestic investments and financing in healthcare to address the inadequate health funding within the health sector. However, health financing should be coupled with the healthcare efficiency of currently available resources before sourcing for more.

Participants were drawn from experienced senior policymakers and decision-makers, senior executives with significant responsibility for strategic decision-making, selected experts, and other relevant stakeholders who are influencers across the African continent. These included Chief Directors, Permanent Secretaries, Directors-Generals, Directors of Government Ministries, Parliamentarians, Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), Senior Researchers, Regulators, Academics, Innovators, Youth groups, Women groups, Emerging Technology Scientists, and Senior Members of Relevant Organisations and Agencies. All participants were awarded certificates of achievement for participating in the dialogue.