The Federal Republic of Germany will invest 30 million Euros in the EAC health sector to support vaccination and health supply chain management.
According to a release, part of the funds, 20 million Euros, will be used to procure vaccines against different diseases in the EAC, expected to benefit about 300 million children, while 10 million Euro will support the establishment of the EAC Regional Centre of Excellence for Health Supply Chain Management in Kigali.
The programme will be implemented in collaboration with the global vaccination alliance (GAVI) and this new commitment will bring Germany`s contribution to regional immunisation programmes with the EAC to 60 million euro since 2012.
Mrs Gudrun Grosse Wiesmann, Director Sub-Saharan Africa at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, also announced the willingness of Germany to provide an additional 3 million euros (3.3 million USD) in technical assistance for the region`s crisis response capacity, out of special funds for 2016 with a view to strengthen the pandemic preparedness in the EAC.
“Our support underlines that Germany wishes to further strengthen the long-standing and deep relationship it maintains with the East African Community in order to contribute to the well-being and prosperity of its citizens,” Ms Wiesmann said.
The EAC Deputy Secretary General Dr. Enos Bukuku the assistance helps EAC countries stem the spread of infectious diseases and improve accessibility of health products throughout the region.
And, speaking about the upcoming bilateral negotiations on development cooperation with the EAC in September 2015 Ms Weismann disclosed that Germany is willing to support the EAC in the fields of regional economic integration, health and water resource management, by making available an additional 37 million euros for projects in these fields.
