Gurgaon, Haryana Feb 15, 2022, NATHEALTH organized an Indo-Africa Vaccine Summit to discuss the collaboration of India and Africa in healthcare and how the two countries, regardless of every odds, managed to fight COVID-19. H.E. Dr. Virander Paul, High Commission of India to Kenya & PR to UNEP & UN-Habitat, welcomed all the panel members to the summit and laid an emphasis on learning from the experience of India to achieve permanent vaccination levels.

Mr. Sunil Thakur, Treasurer-NATHEALTH, and Partner Quadria Capital further introduced the guests along with the topics to be covered in the summit. To elaborate more on the utilization of the technology to scale up the process of vaccination, Dr. Lia Tadesse said that the major concern had been the delivery of vaccines. Dr. R S Sharma, Chief Executive Officer, National HealthAuthority, Government of India, addressed the requirement of logistics, IT, manpower, infrastructure, and other things to deal with the problem of vaccination on a large scale.

Ashwajit Singh, MD, IPE Global, pondered upon the challenges faced by India and mentioned that they are quite similar to that Africa might or have faced. He then welcomed Shri. C K Mishra, the Former Union Secretary, GOI, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change and MoHFW, Director, IPE Global Ltd., and Sr. Advisor, Serum Institute, India.

Shri. C K Mishra put his focus on vaccination as a vehicle that managed to succeed in containing the pandemic and quoted,

“Though the technology is a strong tool to push healthcare delivery, there’s much more than only technology that takes to deliver vaccines.”

Ms. Anjali Kaur, Deputy Assistant Administrator of the Bureau for Asia of the USAID, was then welcomed by Mr. Ashwajit, who further elaborated on the USAID helping India’s vaccination campaign.

The panelists include Dr. Willish Akhwale, MOH Kenya, Mr. Rahul Mehra, Chairman & Founder AWL India, Mr. Samit Jain, MD, Pluss Advanced Technologies, Dr. Eva Njenga, Chair of Medical practitioners in Kenya, Ms. Carole Kariuki, CEO, Kenya Private Sector Alliance.

Mr. Sanjiv Navangul, MD and CEO Bharat Serum and Vaccines, was the Session Chair and laid an emphasis on having equity in public health and addressed the need for a platform like COWIN to ensure that the data is properly captured and safely transmitted. The discussion was then led by Mr. Gautam Chakraborty, Development Assistance Specialist, USAID India, the Facilitator, followed by Dr. Willis Akhwale. Dr. Akhwale discussed three major areas, starting with demand generation and the stabilization of the supply chain.

Mr. Rahul Mehra then took over the discussion and led the discussion by addressing the effectiveness of a simple platform that required very little data and provided access to all the beneficiaries who wanted to get registered on the platform. He quoted,

“We learned from the second wave of the COVID-19 a lot about tacking the issues put up by the virus which definitely prepared us for the third wave and now, India is ready to bridge the gap between vaccine-producing and non-producing countries.”

AWL India did a remarkable job in handling the logistics requirements for the delivery and transportation of oxygen cylinders and vaccines all over the country.

Dr. Eva Njenga thanked India for helping African countries get the first batch of vaccines, specifically Covishield, and mentioned that an application could really help people get access to vaccination.

Mr. Samit Jain said:

“Handling the supply chain, logistics, technology has been great learning, and if the government, the private sector, and multi-national companies can work in tandem, the whole world can steer through this.”

Ms. Carole Kariuki focused on the test that was carried out by the pandemic of the partnerships among entities and mentioned that lockdown is responsible for the emergence of online businesses.

It just can’t be denied that India overcoming COVID-19 was just the beginning of the world appreciating the potential and capabilities of India. With the onset of companies like AWL India, which are leading in providing logistics and supply Chain Company based on technology and IoT, there is only more growth to witness.