Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says Canada will provide $1 million to help stem mpox in Africa as her government assembles a long-delayed plan on how to engage with the continent.
The funding will go to the World Health Organization as it tries to contain the spread of the virus formerly known as monkeypox, which has been spreading rapidly across Africa.
Joly is visiting a vaccination co-ordination centre in Ivory Coast, ahead of a visit to South Africa for two days starting Wednesday.
The visit to the West African nation is aimed at exploring shared counterterrorism priorities and affirming Canada’s ties with both French-speaking countries.
Joly’s office says she will also discuss economic partnership between Canada and South Africa and mark 30 years since the end of apartheid.
The trip comes days after the Liberals launched consultations for what they are now calling their approach to Africa, which includes where to best station diplomats and what issues to focus on.
The African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has asked Canada to donate some of its stockpile of mpox vaccines, though Ottawa has only said it’s looking at how it can help.
The newly announced funding will go toward improving detection and reporting systems for mpox, such as boosting laboratory testing and speeding up research, according to Joly’s office.
The funding builds on a $2-million contribution Canada has made for the WHO to respond to health emergencies worldwide.
South Africa previously called out countries like Canada for hoarding COVID-19 vaccines that were sorely needed in Africa, and for not supporting efforts to lift patents on COVID-19 medicines and vaccines that were rarely allowed to be manufactured in African countries.
“Canada stands with our African and multilateral partners in their efforts to accelerate the response to the current mpox outbreak,” Joly said in a statement. “We are prepared to assist with the global response and do our part to stop the spread of the virus.”
The Liberals have been assembling what they first called an Africa strategy for nearly three years, but they downgraded the project last year to call it a framework. In April, a senior bureaucrat said there was no longer a noun being used to describe the plan, which as of this week Ottawa now calls its “approach” to the continent.
Experts in public administration have previously pointed out that strategies are multi-year plans that often have funding allocations, while frameworks are a generic set of principles.
In 2022, senators on the foreign-affairs committee warned that Canada was falling behind both peers and adversaries in forming economic ties on the continent.
Africa is bucking a global trend of demographic decline, with a booming young population and a series of trade deals and infrastructure projects that economists expect will lead to economic booms.
Canada has already pledged some sort of plan for economic co-operation with Africa, and finished a consultation last summer. It’s unknown whether this project will be folded into the broader approach Joly is leading.
Aid experts have called on Canada to better brand the projects it funds on the continent and to have a more coherent approach to both development and trade.
Groups like the One Campaign and CUSO International have testified that Canada is losing relevance through continued disengagement, and thus ceding ground to Russia and China.
