Africa faces the world’s most dramatic public health crisis, with less than 1 percent of global health expenditure and only 3 percent of the world’s health workers. The continent accounts for almost half the world’s deaths of children under five, has the highest maternal mortality rate, and bears a heavy toll from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. 

Major hurdles, such as the high rate of maternal and newborn mortality, are still found throughout the continent; 19 of the 20 countries with the highest maternal mortality rates worldwide are in Africa. In addition, it has the highest neonatal death rate in the world.   

Basic sanitation needs remain unmet for many: only 58 percent of people living in sub-Saharan Africa have access to safe water supplies. Non-communicable diseases, such as hypertension, heart disease and diabetes, are on the rise; and injuries remain among the top causes of death in Africa. 

Since its creation in 2014, the Egyptian Agency of Partnership and Development (EAPD) through partnerships, has been keen to support the efforts of African countries to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically SDG 3 (Good health and well-being). EAPD has always sought to capitalize on Egypt’s comparative advantage in medical expertise by engaging with the country’s national centres of excellence of international standing in various medical fields. Partnerships were quickly forged because all parties involved saw the potential benefits to human development. 

Delivering a mobile clinic to Kenya 

On behalf of the Egyptian Government, the agency has delivered a fully equipped mobile clinic to the Government of Kenya in support of the ‘Beyond Zero Campaign’ launched by the First Lady of Kenya. The aim is to help decrease child mortality rates and deploy medical services in various remote areas of the country. 

These South-South cooperation partnerships have proven successful and promising, with a high impact on many lives in African countries. 

EAPD has developed capacity-building programmes in urological and nephrological diseases for African member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), in partnership with the Mohamed Ghoneim Urology & Nephrology Mansoura Center, an Egyptian centre of excellence in the medical field. 

An intensive training programme is being organized at the Mansoura Center for urologists from the Mulago Hospital in Uganda, which is a first step towards establishing a Urology and Nephrology Centre in the Ugandan hospital. The long-term aim is to gradually expand it into a regional centre to serve communities across East Africa.  

In addition to EAPD’s work to establish the Urology & Nephrology Center in Mulago Hospital, it has conducted a number of training programmes in partnership with the Magdy Yacoub Heart Foundation (MYF) in Egypt, headed by the world-renowned Egyptian heart surgeon Sir Magdy Yacoub. The Foundation offers free, state-of-the-art health services to the least privileged at international standards, mainly through its Aswan Heart Centre.  

EAPD has been working closely with MYF to develop African expertise in cardiovascular diseases. This partnership has taken many forms, all with positive results. Promising African surgeons are being trained for extended periods at no cost in the Aswan Heart Centre. Once they return home, they are not only able to perform complex heart interventions, but also to pass on the knowledge they acquired in Egypt to fellow doctors.  

With Egyptian health capabilities, EAPD has intensified its activities to support the Egyptian medical units and clinics located in African countries, including 21 medical centres, in addition to dispatching medical convoys and providing medical assistance. EAPD deployed several medical convoys, which included doctors specializing in general surgery, vascular surgery, ophthalmology and anaesthesia; provided medical services to over 2,000 African citizens and performed over 300 surgeries in various specialties. EAPD also gave special attention to women’s care and reproductive health.  

EAPD’s partnership with the “Egyptian Children Cancer Hospital 57357”, the only specialized children’s cancer hospital in the Middle East and Africa and the largest of its kind in the world, is another success story. Together, EAPD and the Hospital are implementing a capacity-building programme aiming at training 600 African medical practitioners and providing expertise and equipment to hospitals in African cities. Hospital 57357 is currently offering expertise to Sudan in establishing the Sudanese Children’s Cancer Hospital 7979. Moreover, it provides free treatment for a number of African children suffering from cancer.  

In July 2017, the EAPD sponsored a visit to Ethiopia by a medical team of 27 surgeons, doctors and nurses from the Foundation. During their short stay, they performed 45 heart operations, free of charge, on underprivileged Ethiopian citizens at the Black Lion hospital. It only took a few days for the Egyptian medical team to change the lives of so many Ethiopian families forever.  

All of these examples prove that the South can and does help one another to achieve sustainable development through the sharing of knowledge and resources. While EAPD’s partnerships with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the health sector are a case in point, there are other successful models of South-South cooperation in other vital areas.