MOROCCO – The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), a specialized technical institution of the African Union (AU), has designated two institutions to serve as part of a network of Centres of Excellence (CoE) for COVID-19 vaccination.
These include the Institut Pasteur, Casablanca, Morocco and the Rwanda Biomedical Centre, Kigali. Africa has vaccinated only about 5% of its population with COVID-19 vaccine and a 70% coverage target has been set by the World Health Organisation to bring the pandemic under control.
Institut Pasteur of Morocco and Rwanda Biomedical Centre have both demonstrated efficiency in COVID-19 vaccination rollout in their respective countries. For instance, Morocco has vaccinated more than 80% of its targeted population.
Rwanda has immunized about 25% of its eligible population and aims to achieve a 40% coverage by the end of 2021.
The African CDC CoE for COVID-19 vaccination are expected to provide capacity building services to professionals from difference member states across Africa and share best practices on management of vaccination centres, logistics of vaccine distribution, and community engagement and risk communication.
“We are very excited that Morocco is part of this networks of Africa CDC CoE for COVID-19 vaccination and share Morocco’s experience and offer technical assistance if requested with other AU member states,” says Professor Maaroufi Abderrahmane, Director of the Institut Pasteur of Morocco.
As part of the Africa CDC and Mastercard Foundation partnership on Saving Lives and Livelihood, 20 African Union member states representatives, implementing partners, and other international organisations will be meeting in Morocco in late November 2021 to share Morocco’s experiences.
A similar exercise, with additional AU member states, will also be carried out at the Rwanda Biomedical Centre in early December.
“We expect to attain 40 % of targeted persons by December 2021 and are looking forward to working closely with other African countries to share our experiences so far as well as offer technical assistance to others, if necessary, as part of the Africa CDC and Mastercard foundation Saving Lives and Livelihood partnership and network of CoE,” says the Dr Daniel Ngamije, Minister of Health of Rwanda.
The Mastercard Foundation is one of the largest foundations in the world with more than US$39 billion in assets. For more than a decade, the Foundation has advanced financial inclusion and education in Africa, improving the lives of more than 45 million people living in poverty.
The Foundation was created in 2006 through the generosity of Mastercard when it became a public company. Since its inception, the Foundation has operated independently of the company.
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