Winnie Byanyima, the Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) is today, April 13, moderating the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) virtual conference on expanding Africa’s vaccine manufacturing.

Byanyima, the only high profile Ugandan taking part in the conference, will moderate session VIII, whose theme is “Partnership with foundations for manufacturing of vaccines”

The two-day conference began on Monday, April 12, and is being held under the theme “Africa’s Vaccine Manufacturing for Health Security”.

Some of the high-profile participants in the conference include Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi, Rwanda President Paul Kagame, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, and Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

The conference aims at addressing Africa’s low manufacturing capacity which exposes Africans to supply chain risks such as the one experienced with the current COVID-19 vaccine challenges.

According to Africa CDC, expanding African manufacturing will clearly have a significant public health impact and economic benefit to the continent.

Byanyima, an aeronautical engineer by profession, is also the former Executive-Director of OXFAM and has previously served as the director of the Gender Team in the Bureau for Development Policy at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). 

Picture credit: UNAIDS