The Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) and Head of UNOAU, Hanna Tetteh, participated in the SDG 16 Conference themed, “Transforming Governance for a more peaceful, just and inclusive future” organized jointly by the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) and the Italian Government. The SRSG spoke on some of the challenges relating to institutional capacity that had hampered effective crises response at the national level on the African continent by using the existing state of health management systems prior to the outbreak of the pandemic and the continental actions to respond to the COVID-19 challenge as an example of how multilateral partnerships could be used to provide support and address some of these institutional challenges.

She referred to the development and adoption of the joint continental strategy for COVID-19 and other measures that had been put in place to support the implementation of the continental response such as the establishment of the African Task force for the coronavirus, and the creation of the African medical supplies platform among others that had provided guidance and support to national health services and had helped to address some of the institutional capacity challenges that would otherwise have hampered a more effective response. She also noted that the cooperation between the UN, the AU and WHO AFRO in addressing the COVID-19 crises on the continent was a demonstration of the importance of multilateral partnerships such as the UN-AU partnership in developing effective policy responses and addressing gaps in national institutional capacity in developing inclusive solutions to crises.