Reimagining health-industry policy linkages in Africa for pandemic preparedness

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the risks and challenges of relying on imports and the global supply chains to satisfy the local healthcare needs in Low-Middle Income Countries (LMICs). Specifically, the pandemic exposed the lack of broad-based industrial capabilities in LMICs and missing links between health and industrial policies, creating serious questions about responding to the future pandemic. Our previous research has highlighted a need for supporting, strengthening and reimagining the health-industrial policy linkages to stimulate local industrial development through various routes such as agile regulation, innovative procurement, protected markets for local manufacturers, and incentivising technological upgrading. Focusing on Kenya and South Africa, this project engages with a critical question related to health-industrial policy linkages concerning pandemic preparedness: How can the policy be reimagined to support the development of local health-industrial linkages to create broad-based local industrial capabilities and thereby improve local health security for pandemic preparedness?

Research Team: Professor Dinar Kale, The Open University; Professor Rebecca Hanlin, University of Johannesburg; Dr Ann Kingiri, African Centre for Technology Studies; Professor Theo Papaioannou, The Open University