After the WTO COVID-19 waiver : Africa’s way forward

It is great that developing countries negotiated and saw to it that the WTO COVID-19 waiver was strategically proposed and adopted. Following from this important victory, it is time to begin to ask the hard questions. What are developing countries – in particular, Africa – doing with the waiver? How are they or, better still, how “should” they maximize the opportunities offered by the waiver?

In July 2022, the council for Trade-Related Aspect of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) during the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC 12) adopted the proposal for a WTO waiver for COVID-19 vaccines for five years. As the push for the waiver to include COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics was already on the table, MC 12 began discussions on the possibility of extending the waiver to cover the production and supply of COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics.

It is one thing to lobby for the waiver; it is another to strategically engage and maximize the waiver. Africa, with its population of over one billion, would benefit immensely by leveraging the waiver to maximize the benefits of the global intellectual property system, thereby boosting trade and development in Africa. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfcFTA) agreement provides the legal and institutional framework/platform for Africa to avail itself of this opportunity.

This chapter calls for strategic actions through the formulation and implementation of policies by Africa to maximize the benefit of the waiver using the legal and institutional framework provided by AfCFTA.