Mission to Support Ethiopia’s COVID-19 Testing Accomplished in 72 Hours by China-Africa Business Council & Partners

By April 18, 2020 January 18th, 2021 COVID-19, GSSDC, News

15 April 2020, New York – Following a request for support from Ethiopia in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic on 4 February 2020, within 72 hours, the China-Africa Business Council (CABC) and its partners mobilized and delivered a portable automatic nucleic acid extraction and amplification device and testing kits to Ethiopian partners

On 31 January, Ethiopia was listed by World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the 13 top-risk countries in Africa for COVID-19. On 4 February, the Ministry of Health of Ethiopia (MoH) requested urgent support from CABC to procure and provide COVID-19 testing devices and kits. A task force was formed by CABC on the very same day. A portable molecular detector worth around USD 14,000 was donated jointly by CABC and its members including 500 sets of testing equipment donated by Sansure Biotech Inc., a member of the China-Africa Health Industry Alliance of CABC. Thanks to the collaborative efforts of partners, the turnaround time from request to the equipment being handed over to the MoH in Addis Ababa was as little as 72 hours.

"China-Africa Business Council in Action: Mission to Support Ethiopia Accomplished in 72 Hours” reads a CABC poster

Chinese medical team in Ethiopia and Ethiopian CDC researchers in the lab.(Source:Chinese Medical Team in Ethiopia)

Chinese medical team in Ethiopia training local CDC researchers to operate devices donated by CABC (Source:Chinese Medical Team in Ethiopia)

CABC subsequently proceeded to coordinate with technical experts from Sansure to provide Ethiopian partners with online training on operating the devices. In-person training on operating devices was provided by professionals of the Chinese government’s medical aid team based in Ethiopia, through CABC’s coordination with the Chinese embassy in Ethiopia. Thanks to this successful mission, Ethiopia is now among the African countries capable of operating COVID-19 tests.

According to CABC, as of 06 April, CABC and its member companies had donated around USD 2.8 million in funds and medical supplies to countries globally including 10 African countries.

China-Africa Business Council is a chamber of commerce jointly established by the United Nations Development Programme and the China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchanges (CICETE). Since 2006, CABC has established close contacts with domestic and foreign partners, building platforms for cooperation, and creating a good environment for China-Africa economic and trade investment cooperation, promoting China-Africa cooperation and South-South Cooperation. CABC currently counts more than 1,000 member companies, of which over 700 are Chinese companies and 300 are African. The members have established businesses in 51 African countries and investment in 45 with the total investment exceeding USD 10 billion, directly creating 165,000 local jobs and job opportunities for 1.6 million people.

11 projects of China-Africa cooperation were signed during the 2019 China-Africa Private Sector Cooperation Forum held in Changsha, China

A training session under the "Promoting Rapid Development of Broadcast Dubbing Technology in Africa" project (Source:: STARTIMES)

CABC is a key partner of the “Global South-South Development Center”, which is jointly supported by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) and CICETE. Since 2009, CABC has carried out several small-grant demonstration projects under the framework of the Global South-South Development Center Project. Among them, the project of “Promoting Rapid Development of Broadcast Dubbing Technology in Africa” and the project of “Promoting Affordable Prefabricated Housing in Liberia” have been successfully selected as “Good Practices in South-South and Triangular Cooperation for Sustainable Development-Volume 2 “.

Please visit CABC website for more information.