Advancing patient safety through collective action
Advancing patient safety through collective action to prevent medication-related harm.
Closing the gap between regulation and reality
Medication-related harm remains one of the most preventable threats to patient safety on the continent — and one of the greatest opportunities for collective action, measurable impact, and system-wide improvement.
The Africa Patient Safety Summit is a continental platform dedicated to advancing patient safety through patient-centred regulation, strengthened medicines safety systems, and coordinated action across Africa's medicines ecosystem.
Africa is expanding access to medicines faster than it is strengthening the systems needed to ensure those medicines remain safe, effective, and appropriately used.
Without coordinated action, the scale of preventable harm will continue to outpace regulatory, clinical, and supply chain response capacity. This Summit exists because fragmented action is no longer a viable option.
A system-wide patient safety challenge
Medicines save lives every day across Africa. But because systems are failing, patients continue to be affected by:
Our Vision
A coordinated African medicines ecosystem that delivers the safest possible use of medicines, free from preventable medication-related harm.
Our Mission
To build and sustain a continental platform that advances patient safety through patient-centred regulation, strengthened medicines safety systems, and collective action across the medicines ecosystem.
Our Objective
To convene key people and institutions across Africa's medicines ecosystem to align priorities, strengthen collaboration, and accelerate implementation of solutions that prevent medication-related harm.
A bridge between regulation and implementation
The Summit is hosted and convened by Medicines for Africa in partnership with the African Medicines Agency — creating a bridge between continental regulatory leadership and implementation across healthcare systems and industry.
Together, they are helping align continental regulatory leadership with implementation capacity, accelerating coordinated action for safer medicines and stronger patient protection across Africa.
Not a consultation. A platform for action.
This is not a WHO technical consultation, a global health summit, or a traditional regulatory conference. Three defining differences set it apart:
Implementation, not policy discussion
The objective is not to discuss the problem, but to coordinate action towards real-world impact.
Multi-actor design, not sector silos
Regulators, clinicians, industry, researchers, and communities design solutions together.
Actionable continental outputs, not recommendations
The Summit converts alignment into coordinated continental implementation.
From alignment to action
Prevent medication-related harm
By strengthening patient-centred regulation, pharmacovigilance and post-market surveillance, and medicines quality and safety systems.
Strengthen patient-centred regulation
Embedding patient safety, patient experience, and lived experience as core regulatory intelligence inputs — not peripheral feedback.
Drive coordinated ecosystem action
Building shared accountability across regulators, healthcare systems, industry, and communities — from fragmentation to execution alignment.
Continental outputs for implementation
- Kigali Declaration on Patient Safety and Medication-Related Harm
- Africa Medicines Safety Roadmap (Execution Framework)
- Blueprint for Safer Medicines Use and Patient Protection
- Continental Patient Safety Coordination Network
- Strategic Policy and Implementation Recommendations
Africa is at a critical inflection point
- The African Medicines Agency is now established
- Regulatory harmonisation is accelerating
- Digital health systems are expanding rapidly
- Investment in local manufacturing is growing
A multi-stakeholder table
Join Africa's patient-safety movement
Together, we can move from fragmented efforts to coordinated action — and from coordinated action to measurable impact.