We are pleased to announce that our new website for the project Upgrading of Quality Infrastructure in Africa is now online. With this, we have created a platform that gives an overview of the project’s contents and goals as well as its achievements so far. Above all, we provide information about the latest project activities, introduce our partners and give an outlook on future initiatives.
PTB has been supporting the establishment and expansion of quality infrastructure, QI for short, in Africa since 1998. In doing so, we cooperate with partners at continental, national and regional level in Africa to comprehensively strengthen QI and cover all related areas such as accreditation, metrology, standardisation, conformity assessment and technical regulations. However, Africa is still heavily dependent on commodity and agricultural exports. Although QI has improved considerably at the national level, a closer look shows that this mainly concerns those countries that were already partially developed. For almost half of the member states of the African Union, further strengthening of QI is urgently needed. This is the only way to enable free, fair and secure trade for Africa in the future. We have also outlined this in more detail on the website in our Stocktaking Report.
In order to further strengthen the QI, the Agreement on the African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA for short, was ratified by a majority of the member states of the African Union last year. This important milestone should succeed in sustainably strengthening intra-African trade and the economy. PTB supports the Pan-African QI Platform PAQI and its respective institutions in implementing the provisions of the agreement. The project is financed by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. PTB is implementing it, together with the African Union and the Pan-African Quality Infrastructure Organisations (AFRAC, AFRIMETS, AFSEC and ARSO).
We are confident that we can build on what we have achieved so far and continue to write success stories with our partners in the future. Enough ideas and plans are in place. Following the adoption of the African Quality Policy in September 2021, a concrete implementation plan is now being realised. A recent increase of € 5 million in project funds also makes it possible to intensively support vaccine production and the establishment of the African Medicines Agency. As a specialised agency, it will facilitate the harmonisation of medical regulations throughout the African Union and cover a wide range of medicines, traditional medicine and medical products, following the example of the European Medicines Agency. Furthermore, we are committed with our partners to the establishment of a continental Lab Association. This is intended to create a platform on which laboratories can cooperate and exchange experiences or even conduct joint procurements. We are also promoting the establishment of an African Regulatory Cooperation with the aim of advancing the harmonisation of technical regulations.
It is worth taking a regular look at our website. We will inform you here about all new initiatives by us and our partners. Visit us at: https://www.qi-africa.ptb.de.
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