The European Union and the Republic of Slovenia should further strengthen their support to African countries in the provision of vaccines, access to medical products, the initiative to build capacity for local production of medicines and ensure the involvement of civil society organisations in the AU-EU cooperation processes. This is what the SLOGA Platform highlighted in a letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Anže Logar, ahead of his participation in the AU-EU Ministerial Meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, on 25-26 October.
The meeting will focus on cooperation to increase investment in structural change and in people, and on strengthening peace, resilience, governance and security.
In the aftermath of the covid-19 epidemic, ministers will discuss cooperation to build more resilient health systems and rapid response capacities. The SLOGA Platform, therefore, proposes to Minister Logar that Slovenia advocate for increased support for
- ensuring timely, equitable access to medical products and technologies in the framework of the World Health Organisation’s “COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP)” initiative,
- the COVAX Working Group on Vaccine Manufacturing, and
- the EU-level initiative to increase local production capacity for medicines in low- and middle-income countries.
The SLOGA Platform also underlines the need for the European Union to act in a spirit of a partnership of equals. “Such a partnership requires greater respect for the demands and needs of African countries, including in the areas of climate finance, preventing illicit financial flows and tax avoidance. In addition, it is necessary to ensure the involvement of civil society organisations in the existing processes of building a partnership of equals in the run-up to the Africa-EU Summit, during the French presidency next year,” said the SLOGA Platform.
We also reminded Minister Logar that Slovenia needs to adopt an action plan to fulfil its commitment to allocate 0.33% of gross national income to Official Development Assistance (ODA). Currently, Slovenia allocates 0.17% of its GNI.