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Introduction Despite the record-breaking speed of developing and manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines, there was a limited production capacity to promptly and equitably meet vaccine demands everywhere in the world. This, along with other factors such as national politics, economic power, and geopolitics, led to vaccine nationalism, in which some national governments prioritise access to vaccines for their citizens at the expense of global solidarity for equitable distribution. Therefore, to secure Africa’s future access to vaccines, the African Union has announced a bold vision to produce at least 60 percent of the vaccines consumed locally in Africa by 2040, as part of the broader health security and future pandemic response agenda. Achieving this vision requires proactive policy coherence and coordination across the continent to prevent duplication of efforts, waste and unhealthy competition. Consequently, this review aims to map, assess and compare the content of national, regional, and continental-level policies for local vaccine production in Africa, generating actionable insights to inform coordinated strategies and advance the AU’s 2040 vaccine production goal. Methods and analysis The review will be conducted following the Arksey and O’Malley framework and in accordance with the Joanna Briggs Institute’s methodological guidance for scoping reviews. Reporting will adhere to the PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Both published and unpublished policy-related documents will be included by searching the following databases – Overton, Policy Commons, and ProQuest Policy File Index – as well as performing a Google search of official government and relevant institutions’ websites. The search will focus on Africa, using key terms relating to vaccine policies. Two independent reviewers will screen the retrieved documents in Covidence, and data extraction will be conducted using a pretested template in Microsoft Excel 2021. Conclusion This scoping review does not require ethical approval. A comprehensive manuscript detailing the review’s findings will be published upon the study’s completion.
Adenipekun et al. (Thu,) studied this question.