President Cyril Ramaphosa: Roundtable on Pandemic Preparedness
Your Excellency Ms Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, The Right Hon Helen Clark,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am honoured to be part of this roundtable to discuss the work of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response. We welcome the work of the Independent Panel in reviewing response systems, identifying gaps and risks, and making specific recommendations on how to address these weaknesses. The mandate of the panel is founded on the firm conviction that we must act now as a global community to prevent another pandemic from ever again causing such death and devastation.
We know that it is the virus that causes the disease, but it is human action – and inaction – that causes the pandemic. A vital lesson from the coronavirus pandemic is the necessity for collective leadership, collaboration, solidarity and innovation among the countries of the world.
From the outset, these are the principles that have guided Africa’s response to COVID-19. By working together through the African Union, in March 2020 the countries of the continent developed and began implementing the Africa Joint Continental Strategy for COVID-19 Outbreak.
We also established the COVID-19 Task Forces in each of the continent’s five regions to drive the implementation of the continental strategy. The following month, in April 2020, we established an AU COVID-19 Response Fund, which was capitalised by the Member States, international partners and the private sector. Among other things, this helped to capacitate the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, which has been vital in supporting national and regional responses.