ETHIOPIA— Boma of Africa, has just concluded its annual celebration of Africa Integration Week, and it showcased the successes achieved so far by the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and this year focused on the signing of the 4D Pact.

The main objective of the Boma is to assemble Africa’s decision makers across politics, business, technology, and the technocracy to commit to major actions to accelerate Africa’s attainment of the Agenda 2063 goals of unity and continental prosperity.

Under the auspices of the Afro-Champions Initiative, Africa CDC with other inaugural 4D Pact sponsors, signed the African Union 4D Pact.

The new Africa Union initiative, The Pact aims to mobilize development finance institutions (DFIs), multilateral development agencies, AU Member States, corporations, and other important continental and global stakeholders.

The financing and innovations garnered by the 4D Pact activities will be key to accelerating the pace of African integration through Agenda 2063 flagships and related instruments.

Why Africa CDC is a key sponsor of 4D?

The Pact is anchored on its two flagship areas i.e., namely the African Public Health Wallet, and the 4D Bio-Innovation Value Chain Accelerator (4D BioNovac).

These initiatives are instrumental in Africa’s New Public Health & Wealth Order, which acknowledges the lessons learned from the pandemic and emphasizes self-reliance, resilience, innovation, and African agency on the global stage.

The Health Wallet will enhance digital health services, evidence-based policymaking, and the free movement of people and goods, contributing to future pandemic responses and improving public health interventions.

Meanwhile, 4D BioNovac will leverage genomics, Artificial Intelligence, and other biotechnological advancements to support Africa’s continental free trade, air transport, vaccine manufacturing, and pathogenic genomics initiatives.

By integrating these diverse sectors, Africa aims to reduce dependency and strengthen both wealth creation and health security.

Notably, the 4D Pact aims to activate a post-pandemic digital health infrastructure that will transform public health in Africa and fortify the continent against future pandemics.

The 4D platform and the part it will play in Africa’s Agenda 2063 vision

In October 2019, the African Union Commission launched the Trillion Dollar Framework (TDF), with technical support from the AfroChampions Organisation.

The objective of the TDF was, from the beginning, the devising of innovative resourcing frameworks to advance the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063 flagships like the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) that are forging Africa’s strategic integration for global relevance.

In February 2020, the AU’s supreme policy organ, the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, tasked the Ministers responsible for Trade, Finance, and Development and the AU Commission (AUC) to continue accelerating the implementation of the TDF.

As a policy vehicle for advancing the TDF and AfCFTA, the AUC and its strategic partners have created the 4D mechanism.

4D is aimed to institutionalize the public-private partnerships critical to mobilizing the continent behind a common strategic purpose of integrating African economies and boosting their competitiveness in global value chains.

The emphasis of Boma 2023 is on the signing of the 4D Pact by leading Pan-African institutions.

The 4D Pact is a commitment to work together to promote and resource large-scale platforms and accelerators of key innovations.

Innovations that are urgently needed at public and private sector levels to transform Africa according to Agenda 2063: the Africa we want.

The Future of the 4D and Boma of Africa

The 4D Pact is a strategic commitment by Pan-African institutions working together to promote and resource large-scale platforms and accelerators of innovations at public and private sector levels.

During his opening speech, this year BOMA 2023 patron, H.E Cyril Ramaphosa President, of the Republic of South Africa said, “The COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Europe, and the associated health and economic crises have taught us that Africa’s vulnerabilities can only be solved by Africans and their governments taking our destiny into our own hands as Africans.”

President Ramaphosa added that equally important, a key lesson learned was the need to take integration seriously because our vulnerabilities and problems are integrated.

“Moreover, the solutions must therefore be integrated and coordinated by Africans,” President Ramaphosa insisted.

Speaking at Boma 2023, H.E. Dr. Jean Kaseya, Africa CDC Director General, described the 4D Pact initiative as a game-changer for Africa’s health security agenda, emphasizing that it would play a vital role in achieving the objectives of the New Public Health Order and the New Deal agenda.

“Africa was the first continent to open borders and allowed movement of people to continue their economic activities, today we’re here celebrating that achievement. These initiatives aim at strengthening digital health services, informing evidence-based policymaking, and facilitating the smooth movement of people and goods,” Dr. Kaseya informed.   

Dr. Kaseya also indicated that the Africa CDC would continue building on past accomplishments of the Panabios Consortium led by Afro-Champions that allowed Africa to become the first continent to launch an interstate testing and vaccination verification system.

In an era of rapid technological progress, Africa CDC is well-positioned to harness the potential of information technologies for the accelerated digitalization of health systems, underpinned by reliable health data.

This approach will enable the implementation of telemedicine and biomonitoring, making healthcare services more accessible and equitable, while improving the management of health programs and responsiveness to epidemics.

Through strategic collaboration, Africa CDC is working with key African Union organs including  Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the African Union Development Agency – New Partnership for African Development (AUDA-NEPAD), the Africa Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) , and other partners.

The AU organs reiterated that they are confident that the 4D Pact offers the right platform for all stakeholders to chart a resilient trajectory for the post-pandemic era toward achieving Agenda 2063.

Key African Union flagship programs to be accelerated by the 4D Pact include the Protocol on Free Movement of People (PFMP), the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), and the Partnerships for African Vaccine Manufacturing (PAVM) among others.  

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