On 11^th February 2022, KEPSA, led by the CEO Ms Carole Kariuki participated in the virtual Indo-Africa Vaccine Summit that was organized by NATHEALTH and Africa Healthcare Federation (AHF). The summit aimed at addressing some of the critical factors that constrain Africa’s ability to achieve desired COVID-19 vaccination levels and what can be learned and replicated from India’s model.

The Summit showcased key national and international stakeholders and leaders from Africa and India together with discussions and presentations on short-term and long-term focus areas related to Covid vaccination. The summit also offered insights to address the vaccine access, hesitancy, infrastructure and supply chain challenges to ensure equitable access to vaccines to the African countries.

In 2021, KEPSA led in the coordination of the Private Sector Covid-19 Vaccine Initiative, which was launched in partnership with the Government through the Ministry of Health to offer support in expediting the vaccine roll-out to as many people as possible in the shortest time possible in order to get the country to herd immunity quickly to be able to fully reopen the economy. The vaccine roll-out commenced on 8th September 2021 and saw over 95,240 vaccines administered across all counties by the end of the year.

Key speakers during the summit included Dr Harsh Mahajan, President of NATHEALTH; Dr Amit N. Thakker, President of AHF; H.E. Dr Virander Paul, High Commissioner of India to Kenya & PR to UNEP & UN-Habitat; Dr Lia Tadesse, Minister of Health Ethiopia; Dr R S Sharma, CEO of National Health Authority of India; Mr C K Mishra, Former Union Secretary, Government of India; Ms Änjali Kaur – Deputy Assistant Administrator, Bureau for Asia, USAID; Mr Sanjiv Navangul is the Managing Director and CEO at Bharat Serums and Vaccines; Ms Carole Kariuki, CEO of KEPSA; Dr Willis Akhwale, Lead of Vaccine Task Force, Kenya; Mr Rahul Mehra, Chairman & Founder, AWL India Pvt Ltd; Mr Samit Jain, Managing Director, Pluss Advanced Technologies; and Dr Eva Njenga, Chair of Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council in Kenya.

In his welcoming remarks, Dr Amit Thakker noted that the summit is the first step to many more interventions and engagement while highlighting that Africa did shock the world on how it managed COVID-19, especially in the first few months although it wasn’t easy. “There was no enough supply of vaccines in the continent, yet we needed to keep the infections down. But now we have another challenge, and that challenge is to have more people vaccinated in a short time. So, beyond the access now it’s about the last mile and reach.” He noted.

In the keynote addresses under the banner; Ensuring Access to All – Transparency and Effective Vaccination Management through IT, speakers noted that although the supply issue of the Covid-19 vaccine has improved globally, the main challenge remains the delivery. Therefore, the need to support countries to scale up delivery systems and mitigate demands-supply challenges. “In Africa, only 3% of the 10.3 billion doses given globally have been administered and currently only 11.6% of Africans are fully vaccinated compared to the 60% in other countries across the globe,” Said Dr Lia Tadesse. While outlining how the Indian government navigated through the data privacy of the COWIN App, Dr R S Sharma said, “Data security is one of the core values on which the COWIN App was built. The App doesn’t generate usernames and passwords, it works on OTP generation for every contact number. The COWIN App is free for usage on a global level.”

In his keynote address titled; Ways to Scale Vaccine Delivery – Ensuring Supply Chains to Countering Hesitancy, Mr C K Mishra insisted that technology is a very important enabler to achieve the four major pillars in vaccine delivery including research, production ability, delivery mechanism and tracking. “The goal of healthcare shall always remain equity. If the virus survives anywhere, it survives everywhere. We need to understand one fundamental question, that is, do we have the wherewithal to rich the arm?” Remarked Mr Mishra.

The four key factors that broadly contributed to India’s success included; Strong political will led by the Prime Minister with close monitoring at all levels; Large manufacturing capacity including home developed vaccine (Covaxin); Sturdy IT backbone in form of COWIN built for avoiding any administrative delays; and Committed health delivery system which worked tirelessly along with the private sector, media and civil society to deliver such numbers and bring the economy back on its feet.

While sharing on how KEPSA responded to the pandemic in a panel discussion on Collaboration for Impact, Ms Carole Kariuki noted that the Covid-19 pandemic is one of the things that tested the strength of the partnership between the private sector and the government. She added that what proved to be important was the strong partnership that the private sector had developed for a long time. Ms Kariuki outlined various activities that KEPSA had undertaken to support the government efforts by ensuring business continuity, championing tax reliefs to cushion businesses, working on protocols for businesses to continue operating, providing financial support to SMEs, complementing the government efforts in the acquisition of vaccine among other interventions.

The panel was chaired by Mr Sanjiv Navangul is the Managing Director and CEO at Bharat Serums and Vaccines and featured; Dr Willis Akhwale, Lead of Vaccine Task Force, Kenya; Mr Rahul Mehra, Chairman & Founder, AWL India Ltd; Mr Samit Jain, Managing Director, Pluss Advanced Technologies; and Dr Eva Njenga, Chair of Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council in Kenya; and moderated by Mr Gautam Chakraborty, Development Assistance Specialist (Health Finance), USAID India.

The main takeaway from the summit on handling a pandemic included strong political leadership, Data-driven management and Cross-sector collaborations while focusing on a technology-assisted mass vaccination through the mass generation and expanding logistical systems.