Maputo - Heads of the State and Government of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Wednesday pledged commitment to boost the organisation’s regional and national capacities in research and production of medicine, including vaccines manufacture.
The commitment is contained in the final statement released at the organisation´s meeting held in Maputo, Mozambique, on Wednesday.
Angola was represented at the event by the Minister of Interior Eugénio Laborinho, on behalf of President João Lourenço.
SADC Member States and the International Community have been urged to support the proposal of the temporary waiver of some dispositions of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Properties Rights (TRIPS).
The objective is to allow that more countries can produce the Covid-19 vaccines to efficiently respond to the pandemic.
The participants also welcomed the end of the nationalism of the vaccine and the equality of access to all countries.
They also appealed to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to finalise the negotiations on the derogation of some dispositions of TRIPS and speed up its operation.
SADC citizens were also recommended to continue fulfilling and abiding by preventive measures against Covid-19 and to restrict the residents of the organisation to their respective countries based on the origin and the kind of vaccines they received to rethink their position.
The Statesmen exhorted as well the Member States to pass on the Regional Strategy for Food and Nutrition Security to deal with the raising malnutrition rate, reinforcing and enlarging the coverage of protection programmes and social security network.
The Summit supported the recommendations of Report of the chairperson of the SADC Cooperation Body in Political, Defense and Security Sectors, having approved the Mandate of the SADC Standby Force Mission to Mozambique to support for combat terrorism and acts of violent extremism in Cabo Delgado.
The Member States were also recommended to continue collaborating with the humanitarian agencies to continue providing humanitarian support for the people who are affected by terrorist attacks in Cabo Delgado including the internally displaced.
The participants congratulated Mozambique for hosting the SADC Humanitarian and Emergency Operations Center (SHOC) in Nacala, Mozambique, aimed to improve the preparation and the right regional response to emergency situations.
The officials reiterated their unconditional support for lifting of the sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe and support for the country in its ongoing socio-economic efforts.
