Bridging the Gap

African nations are often at the mercy of the international community to receive essential global health resources in times of crisis. To change this, we must expand how we imagine health security and develop locally owned research and development capacity.

Written by Ebele Mọgọ

Feb 22, 2023

Photography by National Cancer Institute / UNSPLASH

When global health action is urgently needed, dependency on global actors is almost often too late and too imprecise of a strategy. Take, for example, the COVAX mechanism which was supposed to ensure speedy and equitable access to vaccines. Richer countries bypassed this mechanism to secure access for their citizens first, while vaccines arrived in poorer nations months later.

This is not the first time an inequitable global scramble for life-saving goods has left poorer countries at the back of the line. Medication s for HIV/AIDs remained out of the reach of countries with the highest burden years after they were commonplace in richer nations. Therefore, while we can expect more border-spanning health crises in the future, what we cannot expect is that global cooperation will reliably deliver solutions for those most in need. While advocacy for global goods remains needed, it is worth considering how to build locally owned research and development capacity. This requires a larger conception of health security.

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About the Author

Ebele Mọgọ

is a public health scientist, specializing in upstream approaches to disease prevention, with a focus on behavioral health, chronic disease, and population well-being.

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Bridging the Gap