On Wednesday, the second day of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa‘s State Visit to the UK, the South African and British Health Ministers (Secretaries, in UK parlance) signed a new agreement, to strengthen bilateral health cooperation, in London. The signing ceremony took place at the Francis Crick Institute, which is Europe’s largest biomedical research institute.

The new agreement will see increased UK funding, for nine biomedical and medical research projects, to be conducted jointly by British and South African institutions. These projects will cover areas as diverse as health systems and financing, surgery, and mental health. 

The UK will also provide new funding to strengthen South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases. British funding is supporting genomic sequencing projects in South Africa, to augment the monitoring of antimicrobial resistance across Africa. This UK support has helped South African researchers to sequence more than 17 000 genomes so far. The new funding will make possible the more rapid detection of dangerous diseases in at least 18 African countries, helping to guard against future pandemics.

The new health cooperation agreement will also prioritise the establishment of vaccine manufacturing capability in Africa. This will allow the local development, and more rapid distribution across the continent, of vaccines. This will strengthen global preparedness against any future pandemics.

The two countries will also work together to secure global health systems from the ever-greater danger of climate change.

“Strengthening the partnership between the UK and South Africa is not only crucial in improving health and patient outcomes in both countries but it is also vital to add to the global resilience of our health systems,” highlighted UK Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay. “Through this partnership we will reinforce our shared commitment to ensuring the world is better prepared for future pandemics through joint research and building capability for disease surveillance including antimicrobial resistance.”