By Hanane Thamik

Morocco has stressed the importance of international cooperation in accelerating the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. The country has followed a cooperative approach based on the spirit of collaboration and adopted an integrated system for vaccine production and distribution, which it believes is key to meeting targets to boost global immunity.

This came during the participation of Mr. Nasser Bourita., Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation, and Moroccans Abroad, in the first meeting of the International Forum on COVID-19 Vaccine Cooperation hosted by China under the chairmanship of Mr. Wang Yi, State Councilor and Foreign Minister. Held via video conference and with the participation of representatives from over 23 countries, the forum aims to link countries that develop and produce vaccines with companies and stakeholders to promote the equitable distribution of vaccines worldwide.

At a time when the World Health Organization proposal to apply a moratorium on anti-Covid vaccine recalls is causing a stir, Mr. Nasser Bourita, took advantage of his intervention at the International Forum on Cooperation in vaccination to insist on equitable and affordable access to anti-Covid vaccines.

“Universal and affordable access to vaccines remains the only way for a fair strategy to exit the health crisis,” said Mr. Nasser Bourita.

The Moroccan official also focused on the vaccination campaign in Morocco. “The national vaccination campaign, to which citizens respond massively, is taking place efficiently and remarkably,” he said, noting that this satisfactory progress is largely based on the vaccine developed by the Chinese company Sinopharm.

Morocco has resolutely chosen to join forces with the Chinese company Sinopharm to create an industrial unit for the production of vaccines, the minister continued. But beyond the legitimate national objective of health sovereignty and self-sufficiency, this initiative is also intended as a response to the vital needs of developing countries, in particular in Africa, where access to vaccines is also weak than unacceptable.

But beyond the lack of side effects, Morocco has also opted for the Chinese vaccine for cost reasons. “To date, the Vero cell-grown vaccine is one of the most equitably accessible vaccines. It is based on efficient technology, it poses few logistical constraints and its price remains within the reach of developing countries”, underlined the Moroccan minister.

 

Morocco plays a leading role in “health diplomacy” in Africa

The kingdom of Morocco aims to become a leading country in biotechnology both on a continental and international level and to have the capacity to provide African countries with corona virus vaccines. This strategy falls within the framework of what is already known as “health diplomacy”, a type of cooperation in which the aim is to provide health assistance to other countries to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this context, Morocco’s investment in vaccines allows the Kingdom to deepen its relations with other countries on the continent, especially in the Sahel and West Africa. Faced with this situation, the Moroccan Prime Minister, Mr. Nasser Bourita, said that “the world chose diplomacy to find solutions to the challenges of the epidemic”, and that, however, “we now find ourselves during a world that is more unequal than ever”.

Morocco decided to draw lessons from the pandemic by launching a project for the local manufacture of corona virus vaccines, as well as other types for the benefit of Morocco and other African countries”.

Morocco’s vaccine production plan “not only guarantees the country’s health sovereignty but also favors the export of vaccines to other African countries”, thus reinforcing its role as a provider of health security on the continent.

Since Morocco began its vaccination campaign last January, more than 12% of the population has been vaccinated with the two doses, making it the African country that has administered the most doses on the continent. Thus, Morocco has managed to overtake countries such as Egypt, Algeria, and South Africa in this health race. Morocco has also sent urgent aid to Tunisia in recent days after the country reached dramatic figures in terms of hospital occupancy and the cumulative incidence of infections among the Tunisian population.

Hanane Thamik is a Ph.D. scholar and author of CGTN Africa. She has 18 publications among them the United Nations Geneva 2019 report and Peking University 5000-MILE REPORT “Africa’s international relations: What’s in store for the next decade?” which was handed to high-ranking officials at the Ministry of Foreign affairs in Beijing.