Wednesday, April 21,2021 / 05:42 PM / byAfrican Union / Header Image Credit: African Union

An extraordinarymeeting of Ministers of Air Transport and key stakeholders on 15th April 2021to discuss this issue of green vaccine passport/certificates

H.E Dr Amani Abou-Zeid, Commissioner forInfrastructure and Energy convened an extraordinary meeting of Ministers ofAir Transport and key stakeholders on 15th April 2021 to discuss this issue ofgreen vaccine passport/certificates with objective to agree on a common Africanposition and establish a mechanism to properly communicate the position to responsibleinstitutions and partners.

The meeting was co-chaired by H.E Didier ManzenguMakangu Minister of Transport of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Chair ofthe AU Transport Sub Committee and H.E. Dr. Amani Abou-Zeid, AUC Commissionerfor Infrastructure and Energy

The meeting brought together African Ministers incharge of Air transport and their representatives from the following MemberStates: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Comoros, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republicof Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana,Madagascar, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Lesotho Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda,Tunisia, Togo, Senegal and South Africa.

Other High-level Representatives of air transportinstitutions, Regional Economic Communities and industry partners from EAC,UNECA, the group of African Ambassadors at the Council of International CivilAviation Organization (ICAO) other ICAO AFI group members and ICAO RegionalDirectors, Secretary-General of African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC),Secretary-General of African Airlines Association (AFRAA), Regional VicePresident for Africa & Middle East at International Air TransportAssociation (IATA) and Director of Africa CDC attended the meeting.

The main objective was to present to the African airtransport Ministers the proposed common position paper the issue of vaccinepassport and its implication to international travel with the view to makeappropriate recommendations. All the participants confirmed their support tothe African common position and the roadmap developed by the African UnionCommission.

In his remarks, the Chair of the AU Transport SubCommittee, H.E Didier Manzengu Makangu appreciated the initiative taken byAfrican Union Commission to develop a common position on the issue of vaccinepassport and called the other Ministers of Air Transport to support theproposal for the benefits of the African citizen

H.E Commissioner of Infrastructure and Energy Dr.AmaniAbou-Zeid informed the meeting that the various initiatives taken by the AUDepartment of Infrastructure and Energy in collaboration with African CivilAviation Commission (AFCAC), Africa CDC, ICAO, AFRAA, IATA and other airtransport stakeholders to ensure a sustainable restart and recovery of theAfrican air transport sector are facing important challenges including travelbans and restrictions preventing African citizens to travel to other continents.Moreover, some developed countries have recently introduced an initiative ofgreen vaccine passports/certificates, making it a mandatory entry requirementfor African countries.

Ambassador Vincent Banda, ICAO AFI group coordinatoralso expressed ICAO support to the initiative of AUC and the developed Africancommon position. He recalled that Recommendation 19 of the International CivilAviation Organization (ICAO) Council Recovery Taskforce (CART) emphasizes thatVaccination should not be a prerequisite for international travel.

The meeting made a call to all Countries in thedifferent World regions that have introduced or are in the process ofintroducing vaccine passports as a pre-requisite for international travel torefrain from doing so given that so far, the vaccine has not been made widelyavailable as confirmed by the WHO, and that the African Continent still has a considerable number of its citizens who have not yet received the vaccines. Themeeting also recommended that the PCR test or antigen test be maintained as theonly requirement until when vaccines become widely available.

African Member States were also encouraged to adoptdigital test wherever possible as verifiable health credentials and as atrusted platform for traveler information and to coordinate all the concernedstakeholders to implement the "Call for action on safe re-opening of borders" developed by the AU Multi-sectorial taskforce on "Saving lives, savingeconomies and livelihoods."

As a way forward it was agreed to communicate theadopted African common position to AU Policy organs, Ministers of Health andICT, other regions including EU and international partners.

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