Victoria - The African Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Pooled Procurement Initiative has been awarded the 2025 SIDS Partnership Award in the economic category. The honour was presented on 12 December during the Global Multi-Stakeholder SIDS Partnership Dialogue at United Nations Headquarters in New York, recognizing a landmark regional effort to secure affordable, quality-assured medicines for African SIDS namely Cabo Verde, Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritius, São Tomé and Príncipe and Seychelles, and enabling the SIDS to join forces, negotiate better prices, and ensure steady supply of quality medicines. 

The initiative has its origins to a 2017 meeting of African SIDS health ministers held in Seychelles, where World Health Organization (WHO) in the African Region introduced the concept of pooled procurement to address small market size, high medicine prices and limited bargaining power. The meeting culminated in the Seychelles Declaration, a collective commitment by participating countries to pursue a shared procurement mechanism for essential medicines. This political commitment, formalized through a regional agreement, laid the foundation for the development of a regional platform designed to reduce medicine costs, stabilize supply chains and strengthen health system resilience. 

Over the years that followed, Seychelles played a pivotal leadership role, first by supporting the technical groundwork required to shape the initiative and later by hosting the 2024 African SIDS ministerial meeting that finalized long-term supplier agreements and endorsed the transition of the initiative’s secretariat to Mauritius.  

In 2024, Seychelles received its first pharmaceutical consignment through the pooled procurement mechanism, a historic milestone for African SIDS. The country now anticipates cost savings of at least 50% over five years across 67 essential medicine formulations, based on price comparisons with the 2021-2022 period. Long-term framework agreements with two competitively selected suppliers at the moment have strengthened supply security and significantly reduced the risk of stock-outs. At the governance level, Seychelles has continued to provide technical leadership, ensuring continuity through the secretariat transition and actively promoting broader participation among peer countries. 

Throughout this process, WHO provided ongoing technical and financial support and served as interim secretariat to coordinate procurement planning, training and stakeholder engagement. The Organization also facilitated the inclusion of Madagascar and Guinea-Bissau into the existing membership of the six African SIDS. 

This collaboration has enabled countries with historically limited market leverage to collectively negotiate better prices and improve availability of essential medicines, particularly those needed for managing noncommunicable diseases, with cancer a significant burden in Seychelles as well as other African SIDS. 

“This award reflects the determination of African SIDS to transform long-standing challenges into collective opportunities,” said Dr Rex Mpazanje, WHO Representative for Seychelles. “Through pooled procurement, countries like Seychelles are not only expanding access to affordable, quality-assured medicines, but also demonstrating the power of regional solidarity in advancing health for all.” 

Looking ahead, Seychelles and its regional partners are preparing for the next tender cycle, aiming to expand the list of medicines and suppliers while applying lessons from the pilot phase to improve efficiency and value for money. Sustaining regular procurement cycles and deepening regional collaboration will be central priorities ahead of the March 2026 Health Ministers’ Meeting in São Tomé and Príncipe. With Mauritius soon to be hosting the permanent secretariat, and Seychelles continuing to provide technical and advocacy leadership, the initiative is well positioned to drive long-term improvements in access to essential medicines across African SIDS.