Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department is taking steps to help support manufacturing initiatives for health products in (a) Africa and (b) other regions.

The FCDO's Manufacturing Africa programme has been facilitating investments in pharmaceutical manufacturing and supported the African Union Centre for Disease Control's "Partnerships for African Vaccine Manufacturing" (PAVM) initiative to increase African based vaccine manufacture. Another project in financial year 2020-21 enabled an increase in the quality and capability of Personal Protective Equipment production in Africa and Asia. The UK also supports manufacturing of health products in Africa and elsewhere through support for global health initiatives such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), the Vaccine Alliance, and Unitaid.