81316642-Skills development for the Ghanaian pharmaceutical sector

Access to affordable and high-quality vaccines and medicines is fundamental to ensuring the well-being of any population. Today, Ghana imports 70 % of the pharmaceutical products and 100 % of the vaccines it needs. As in many African nations, this reliance on imported pharmaceutical products is straining both the economy and public health security. The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the vulnerabilities inherent in this dependency, highlighting the importance for self-reliance and resilient healthcare systems. Ghana is therefore embarking on an ambitious initiative aimed at enhancing local manufacturing capacities for vaccines and medicines to foster availability and accessibility. The pharmaceutical sector has also been identified as an anchor industry for Ghana's industrial transformation and the creation of decent jobs. On the one hand, Ghana"s pharmaceutical industry faces challenges such as cost-intensive procurement of primary products from abroad, a lack of product diversification, high financing costs and a lack of the necessary technologies, technical capacities and skilled workforce. On the other hand, market opportunities are growing and the industry has a strong basis to build on, such as a network of existing local manufacturers, international collaborations for technology transfer, supply, skills development and research, as well as an enabling policy framework. Ghana thus has the potential to become one of the regional vaccine and pharmaceutical manufacturing hubs in Africa. Building on this momentum, the European Union (EU) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) are co-financing the programme "Strengthening the Ghanaian Pharmaceutical Sector with a Focus on Vaccine Production" (PharmaVax Ghana) as part of the Team Europe Initiative (TEI) Manufacturing and Access to Vaccines, Medicines and Health Technologies (MAV+). GIZ is the implementing agency for this EUR33 million technical cooperation programme running from July 2024 to March 2028. The programme"s specific objective is to ensure that the public and private ecosystems of Ghana"s pharmaceutical industry contribute to more competitive local manufacturing of pharmaceutical products. Within this ecosystem approach, the programme works on strengthening key enablers for efficient and sustainable vaccine and pharmaceutical manufacturing in Ghana. In particular, it focuses on four key result areas (components): (1) Governance & Regulation: Enhancing the capacities of Ghanaian public actors to effectively govern, coordinate and regulate pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing (2) Skills Development: Institutionalising practice-oriented, gender-responsive skills development measures needed to grow pharmaceutical and vaccine production capacities in Ghana (3) Research & Development (R&D): Fostering Ghanaian research institutions" applied R&D capacities and industry partnerships to stimulate local innovation in pharmaceutical and vaccine development and manufacturing (4) Private Sector Development: Enabling Ghanaian pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturers to comply with good practices, become attractive for international partnerships and grow their business Ghana"s Ministry of Finance (MoF) is the programme"s political partner, with the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) and the National Vaccine Institute (NVI) being the key Ghanaian implementing partners. The programme also works in collaboration with the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), line ministries for health, education and sciences, Ghana"s pharmaceutical manufacturers, private sector associations as well as relevant research and training institutions and it will create linkages with other African, European and international initiatives, research institutions and companies. GIZ intends to contract a service provider for the implementation of two work packages within component 2 of the PharmaVax Ghana the programme.