AFRICAN leaders have approved the first Director General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control (CDC), a year after they voted to allow the body to make the transition from a specialised technical department of the African Union to an autonomous public health agency.
Since the CDC was formed in 2017, in the wake of the Ebola crisis in West Africa, it has been headed by a director.
But by approving the candidacy of Dr Jean Kaseya, a Congolese medical doctor, at their summit in Addis Ababa over the weekend, the continent’s leaders now want the CDC to have more authority, flexibility and speed in responding to public health emergencies.
The DG will now have the power navigate the AU’s cumbersome internal bureaucracy.
Kaseya will report to the AU’s chairperson and have the power to convene heads of state on issues of public health, which was not a power invested in a director.
In a document submitted as part of his candidacy, Kaseya outlined his vision for the revamped CDC,
According to Devex, the development news agency, which was sent a copy of the manifesto, Kaseya said he would strive for a ‘new management culture’ in the organisation.
‘A technically strong Africa CDC that counts leading experts among its staff, is adequately funded and efficient at budgeting, has reliable rapid-response teams on the ground at times of crisis, and contributes to building a resilient Africa that is capable of effectively detecting, preventing, and controlling diseases for the achievement of [universal health coverage], the SDGs, and the realisation of the AU’s 2063 agenda’ will be core to his mandate, he wrote.
Kaseya noted that Africa CDC had a large number of staff vacancies, ‘cumbersome’ administrative processes, and weak financial and logistical management that include ‘a lack of internal controls, inadequate financial rules and accountability mechanisms, and a suboptimal procurement process’.
He said that in 2020, Africa CDC only used 39 per cent of its operational budget from donors despite the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and other health emergencies.
Kaseya also pointed out that Africa CDC suffered from a dearth of accountability — currently operating with neither a strategic plan nor publicly available annual reports for 2021 or 2022, which were necessary for the agency to learn lessons from mistakes and correct its course.
‘This is leading
to a loss of confidence in Africa CDC,’ he wrote.
Kaseya said he would like the continent to implement an ‘African Air Tax’ — a tax on airline passengers to fund Africa CDC’s health support to countries as just one of the ways the agency can work to reach financial autonomy.
During his first 100 days in the role, he expects to have conversations with partners and staff to understand what is needed, publish a strategic plan and old annual reports, aiming to ‘initiate decisions to quickly correct deficiencies and restore the organisation’s credibility’.
Kaseya said that he planned to host a replenishment meeting to raise funds, hoping to ‘develop a fresh resource-mobilisa
tion pathway’.
In welcoming Kaseya’s appointment, the World Health Organisation Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, tweeted: ‘His years of experience working in international development and health will support the continued growth of @AfricaCDC.
‘I look forward to strengthening our partnership.’
Kaseya’s previous roles include nine years with UNICEF, two years with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, as well as work with the World Health Organisation, and the DRC government, which included chief routine immunisation officer and senior adviser to the president.
He recently worked with the Clinton Health Access Initiative, where he served as senior country director for the DRC and global team lead for work on the African Health Diagnostics Platform with the European Investment Bank.
