In an increasingly unstable world, marked by geopolitical tensions, supply chain disruptions and renewed conflict, health security can no longer be taken for granted. The ongoing conflict in the Middle East is a stark reminder that disruptions to energy, logistics and supply chains can quickly translate into global health risks, affecting access to medicines and weakening response capacities far beyond the region.
Against this backdrop, the World Health Summit Regional Meeting in Nairobi comes at a critical moment for global health. It reflects a growing recognition that the time has come to move decisively from diagnosis to implementation.
In today’s rapidly evolving geopolitical context, regional initiatives and multipolar dynamics must reinforce, not undermine, multilateral cooperation. This moment should mark the beginning of a new architecture of global solidarity – one driven by African leadership and shared responsibility.
Partnerships such as those between Africa and Europe can serve as practical platforms to test approaches that strengthen global governance, including in view of the 2026 UN High-level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response.
The Covid-19 pandemic exposed the extent of our dependencies, the fragility of supply chains, and the limits of solidarity. Nowhere was this clearer than in Africa’s reliance on imported vaccines and essential medicines – an imbalance long accepted but revealed as an existential risk. Yet this vulnerability also triggered a shift. Africa and Europe learned that health cannot be outsourced: it must be built together, with lucidity and political courage.
From dependence to co-responsibility
Africa now carries a clear ambition: to produce, regulate and protect with greater autonomy, in alliance with its partners. Europe, too, has moved beyond assumptions of self-sufficiency. Both continents are rebuilding their relationship based on reciprocity and shared resilience. Pharmaceutical and vaccine production projects are expanding, laboratory networks are connecting, and institutions are collaborating at a continental scale. Initiatives such as the Partnership for Vaccine Manufacturing in Africa, supported by the African Union and the European Commission, symbolise this new era – one in which solidarity is measured in capacity, not assistance.
Yet this transformation will only succeed if matched by a change in mindset. As highlighted by The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, in an era of interwoven crises, a single pathogen can still trigger global disruption within days. Despite this, less than 3% of global health expenditure is devoted to preparedness. As long as investment remains focused on reaction rather than prevention, vulnerability will persist.
A different path is possible. Joint investment in research, development, and manufacturing would enable Africa and Europe not only to respond to crises, but to anticipate them. This is the foundation of a new model of global health: anticipatory, shared, and sustainable, grounded in domestic investment, stronger governance, and regional capacity.
Turning the lessons of the pandemic into shared leadership
Health sovereignty does not mean cutting oneself off from the world, but mastering interdependence. It relies on a long-term vision where research, innovation and governance mutually reinforce one another. Recent cooperation between the Africa CDC and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control – linking laboratory networks and strengthening data and surveillance systems – illustrates how scientific collaboration can become an architecture of trust.
What is at stake now goes far beyond health. The ability to protect populations in the face of converging crises is a condition for stability and development. In this context, the Africa-Europe partnership can serve as a model: not of dependence, but of co-sovereignty.
Global health is no longer simply a humanitarian concern; it is a matter of political choice. Decisions taken in international forums and across African and European institutions will shape our capacity to face future crises. While the momentum behind One Health has grown, implementation remains fragmented across sectors, institutions, and financing systems. Human, animal, and environmental health efforts still operate too often in silos, limiting our collective ability to anticipate and respond to complex risks. The recently released State of Africa-Europe Report 2025 has shown how Africa and Europe can, together, embody this new leadership: one that does not promise to avoid crises, but to stand through them with transparency and solidarity.
As discussions in Nairobi continue, one thing is clear: the time for diagnosis is over. What is now needed is alignment – of political will, institutions, and financing. Health sovereignty and pandemic preparedness are not abstract ambitions: they are the conditions of our shared future.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a former president of Liberia, honourary president of the Africa-Europe Foundation and a Nobel laureate.
Gunilla Carlsson is chair of the governing board of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida); and chair of the Africa Europe Foundation Strategy Group on Health.