03412nas a2200277 4500000000100000008004100001260001200042653001300054653001800067653001300085100001400098700001300112700001400125700001100139700001300150700001800163700001300181700001500194700001300209700001500222700001000237245011200247856026000359490000700619520250800626 2021 d c02/2021 10 aCovid-19 10 aGlobal health 10 aPolitics 1 aChattu VK 1 aKnight A 1 aAdisesh A 1 aYaya S 1 aReddy KS 1 aDi Ruggiero E 1 aAginam O 1 aAslanyan G 1 aClarke M 1 aMassoud MR 1 aJha A 00 aPolitics of disease control in Africa and the critical role of global health diplomacy: A systematic review uhttps://www.researchgate.net/profile/Srikanth-Reddy-8/publication/349118946_Politics_of_disease_control_in_Africa_and_the_critical_role_of_global_health_diplomacy_A_systematic_review/links/6021726aa6fdcc37a812694e/Politics-of-disease-control-in-Africa-and 0 v11 3 aBackground: Africa is facing the triple burden of communicable diseases, non-communicable
diseases (NCDs), and nutritional disorders. Multilateral institutions, bilateral arrangements,
and philanthropies have historically privileged economic development over health concerns.
That focus has resulted in weak health systems and inadequate preparedness when there are
outbreaks of diseases. This review aims to understand the politics of disease control in Africa
and global health diplomacy’s (GHD’s) critical role.
Methods: A literature review was done in Medline/PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Embase,
and Google scholar search engines. Keywords included MeSH and common terms related to
the topics: “Politics,” “disease control,” “epidemics/ endemics,” and “global health diplomacy”
in the “African” context. The resources also included reports of World Health Organization,
United Nations and resolutions of the World Health Assembly (WHA).
Results: African countries continue to struggle in their attempts to build health systems for
disease control that are robust enough to tackle the frequent epidemics that plague the continent.
The politics of disease control requires the crafting of cooperative partnerships to accommodate
the divergent interests of multiple actors. Recent outbreaks of COVID-19 and Ebola had a
significant impact on African economies. It is extremely important to prioritize health in the
African development agendas. The African Union (AU) should leverage the momentum of the
rise of GHD to (i) navigate the politics of global health governance in an interconnected world
(ii) develop robust preparedness and disease response strategies to tackle emerging and reemerging
disease epidemics in the region (iii) address the linkages between health and broader
human security issues driven by climate change-induced food, water, and other insecurities (iv)
mobilize resources and capacities to train health officials in the craft of diplomacy.
Conclusion: The AU, Regional Economic Communities (RECs), and African Centres for Disease
Control should harmonize their plans and strategies and align them towards a common goal
that integrates health in African development agendas. The AU must innovatively harness the
practice and tools of GHD towards developing the necessary partnerships with relevant actors
in the global health arena to achieve the health targets of the Sustainable Development Goals.