Including and amplifying the voice and priorities of the Africa Region in Geneva-based Global Health activities.

The Global Centre for Health Diplomacy and Inclusion (CeHDI), in collaboration with the Permanent Mission of Zimbabwe to Geneva, convened a high-level side event on August 24, 2025, in conjunction with the 75th Session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa in Lusaka, Zambia. The Permanent Mission of Zimbabwe is the current (2025/26) coordinator of the Africa Group on health matters. The event provided Ministers of Health and delegates with timely insights into Geneva-based global health activities, particularly on the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) system, a critical annex of the WHO Pandemic Agreement. The meeting explored concrete mechanisms to ensure Africa's sustained participation, stronger representation, and the amplification of regional priorities in these activities. The meeting also discussed advancing the right to health as a gateway to global health equity and a means of safeguarding Africa's health sovereignty.

In his opening remarks, Dr. Douglas Mombeshora, Minister of Health and Child Care of Zimbabwe, stressed the urgent need for Africa to speak with one unified voice on global health issues, particularly in the face of growing challenges such as the erosion of multilateralism and the pressing imperative to assert health sovereignty. He reaffirmed his government's strong commitment, in its role as coordinator of the Africa Group in Geneva, to actively facilitate and coordinate these collective efforts on behalf of the region. In this regard, he acknowledged the partnership and technical support of CeHDI. In her turn, H.E. Ambassador Ever Mlilo, Permanent Representative of Zimbabwe to the United Nations Office at Geneva and the current Coordinator of the Africa Group, underscored that the African Ambassadors Group in Geneva regards health as a critical area of engagement, even amid competing priorities and persistent capacity challenges. She pledged to facilitate a regular health diplomacy platform to strengthen dialogue between Geneva-based ambassadors and Ministers of Health, thereby ensuring closer alignment between diplomatic action and national health leadership.

H.E. Ambassador Vuyile Dumisani Dlamini, Permanent Representative of Eswatini to the United Nations Office at Geneva and Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) on the WHO Pandemic Accord, briefed the meeting on the state of negotiations regarding the PABS Annex. He recalled the adoption of the WHO Pandemic Agreement as a framework to strengthen pandemic preparedness and response, stressing that the PABS Annex is a central pillar of this agreement as it seeks to address pathogens with pandemic potential while ensuring equitable benefit-sharing. He noted that the IGWG's mandate includes drafting and negotiating the PABS Annex for submission to the 79th World Health Assembly, conducting related preparatory work, and developing the Terms of Reference for the Conference of the Parties. He emphasised the importance of ensuring the presence of African technical experts at every stage of the negotiations as the Annexe is essential to preserving Africa's sovereign rights over its biological resources and to strengthening its capacity for robust regional surveillance systems. Concluding his intervention, Ambassador Dlamini posed a central question to ministers: "How can the Africa Region ensure that the PABS Annex includes all the necessary elements, given that it is the heartbeat of the Pandemic Agreement?"

Prof. Mohamed Yakub Janabi, Regional Director of the WHO African Region, welcomed the initiative to strengthen health diplomacy among the African Group in Geneva, emphasising its critical role in advancing national health sovereignty and achieving universal health coverage. He stressed the importance of establishing a systematic mechanism to keep Ministers of Health regularly informed about Geneva-based global health activities, and highlighted, in particular, the ongoing PABS negotiations. In this regard, he pledged that WHO AFRO will collaborate with the Africa Group in Geneva to meaningfully engage Ministers of Health at the most critical stages of the negotiation process.

Dr. Haileyesus Getahun, Chief Executive Officer of CeHDI, reiterated CeHDI's commitment to supporting the Africa Group as part of its core mission to raise the voices and priorities of the Global South in Geneva-based global health activities. He also briefed the meeting on the importance of proactive engagement by Ministers of Health in the national processes of the Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council, highlighting the right to health as a means to achieve universal health coverage and soliciting whole-of-government and whole-of-society support for the health sector.

The meeting participants emphasised the importance of health diplomacy and closer collaboration with Geneva-based ambassadors and Ministries of Health, as well as the need to prioritise Africa's perennial challenges, particularly the high maternal mortality rate and the urgent need to reclaim and safeguard national health sovereignty in Geneva-based global health activities.