The World Health Organization (WHO) and the African Medicines Agency (AMA) signed the Framework Agreement for Collaboration on Friday, which aims to strengthen regulatory systems and improve access to safe, efficient, and quality-assured health products across the African continent.

The Framework Agreement for Collaboration establishes a partnership between WHO and AMA to advance the harmonization of legal frameworks across Africa, in addition to supporting the operationalization of AMA as a continental regulatory institution that oversees access to safe and quality-assured medical products.

Dr Yukio Nakatani, WHO assistant director-general for health systems, access, and data, said: “The launch of this Framework Agreement for Collaboration is a decisive step towards building a more unified, efficient and resilient regulatory ecosystem in Africa, benefiting not only the continent, but the world.”

The agreement addresses longstanding challenges that have hindered African nations’ access to safe and quality health care products, such as fragmented regulatory systems, limited market oversight, limited local manufacturing, and the threat of substandard and falsified medical products. It provides a foundation for joint operational plans over the next three to five years, during which WHO and AMA will work together to ensure that African nations have access to safe and quality medical products. Key strategies include promoting regulatory harmonization, strengthening safety surveillance and responses to falsified health products, and supporting local innovation and production of medicines.

WHO emphasized that this agreement represents a “historic opportunity” to transform the regulation of medical products across Africa by enhancing cooperation, reducing regulatory fragmentation, and accelerating access to safer medicines for all Africans. In order to pursue these goals, both WHO and AMA urged member states and international partners to support these efforts by advancing the required reforms, accelerating treaty ratifications, and investing in a trusted and harmonized regulatory ecosystem.

The Framework Agreement for Collaboration was launched on the margins of the Seventy-ninth World Health Assembly (WHA79), which gathered ministers of health, African Union institutions, national regulatory authorities, and global partners to reinforce commitments to regulatory reform and investment in regulatory systems strengthening. The agreement also comes at a critical time for Africa, as the continent deals with the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda. On May 17, 2026, the WHO director-general declared the event a public health emergency of international concern under Article 12 of the International Health Regulations.