Stream Convenor: Nelson Aghogho Evaborhene nelsone@ruc.dk
This stream examines how African actors, institutions, and epistemic communities are reshaping narratives of health sovereignty and global governance in the wake of COVID19 and populist retrenchment. The pandemic exposed enduring hierarchies in global health from vaccine nationalism to donor dependency but also revealed Africa’s capacity for collective agency, innovation, and institutional leadership through initiatives such as the African Union’s New Public Health Order (NPHO), Africa CDC, and the African Medicines Agency.
The stream situates African agency within broader geopolitical shifts, including declining foreign aid and the rise of great power competition. It also critically engages with ongoing Global Pandemic Treaty negotiations, exploring how African states and institutions assert collective bargaining, influence international norms, and operationalize treaty obligations to strengthen continental health sovereignty.
I propose three linked panels for the stream:
1. From Dependency to Autonomy: African Institutions and the Reimagining of Global Health Governance – Examining African-led initiatives and institutional strategies fostering collective agency and regional leadership.
2. Vaccine Diplomacy, Technology Transfer, and the Geopolitics of Health in Africa – Exploring Africa’s navigation of global power dynamics, vaccine inequities, technology transfer, and treaty negotiations.
3. Decolonial Narratives and Knowledge Production in African Health Governance – Highlighting African-led research, epistemic communities, and narrative framing that shape policy, legitimacy, and continental self-representation.
Together, these panels provide a multi-located and interdisciplinary exploration of African agency, narrative construction, and health sovereignty in a fragmented and competitive global order. Contributions drawing on policy analysis, ethnography, historical perspectives, and interdisciplinary approaches bridging international relations, political science, anthropology, and public health are welcome.
By centering African voices and institutional experiences, this stream seeks to unpack how stories of crisis, resilience, and sovereignty are constructed, contested, and mobilized in shaping the continent’s role in global health governance.
