A recent audit by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) found that a lack of EU funding for vaccine coordination and delivery led to empty shelves in partner countries, according to Euractiv.
The ECA report, published on Wednesday, 2 October, examines EU funding for health projects between 2007 and early 2024 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Burundi and Zimbabwe. ECA member George-Marius Hyzler stated:
EU funds should be used more effectively as a matter of urgency, in particular by improving the allocation criteria for funding, ensuring that management costs are reasonable, and addressing project sustainability.
Auditors detected serious coordination issues with partner countries, leading to persistent shortages of medicines on shelves in Zimbabwe, low availability of vaccines and duplicate interventions.
The report was released against the backdrop of the ongoing outbreak of clade Ib mpox in Central and East Africa, recently declared an emergency by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Although the mpox outbreak happened after our audit fieldwork had been finalised, our report covers issues linked to the delivery and distribution of medicines and the sustainability of programmes supporting health systems.
The paper also emphasises that mpox is not the only health challenge faced by African health systems. The auditors state that securing continued domestic and international financing is key to ensuring the sustainability of global health programmes.
