African island states win UN award for medicines access |18 December 2025

Seychelles’ first pharmaceutical consignment through the pooled procurement mechanism

African island states win UN award for medicines access

Access to essential medicines is being reshaped across clinics in Comoros, Mauritius, Seychelles, Cabo Verde, Madagascar, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe – collectively known as Africa’s small island developing states (Sids).

This quiet but profound shift has now earned global recognition. At the United Nations in New York this week, African Sids received the 2025 UN Sids Partnership Award in the Economic category for their pioneering Pooled Procurement Initiative — an ambitious, WHO-supported partnership transforming access to medicines across the islands.