Parliamentary Committee on Health has cautioned Malawi Government to tread carefully on the five-year $740 million (about K1.3 trillion) US health financing deal that has raised eyebrows at personal data access.
In a written response yesterday, committee chairperson Anthony Masamba urged government to demand co-authorship, data use agreements that protect intellectual property (IP), guaranteed technology transfer and ring-fenced funding for Malawi’s laboratories and data stewardship.
The deal is set to be signed by December 31 2025.
Said Masamba: “Protect sovereignty! Insert clauses affirming Malawi’s data ownership, regulatory primacy and right to suspend access during national security or legal conflicts citing precedents raised in Kenya’s legal review debates on the matter.
“Establish an independent, Malawi-based oversight entity to audit access, publish annual transparency reports and certify privacy compliance before any extension of access windows.”
The deal is extended to several other African countries and reports indicate that pathogen information and granting access to data systems sharing will remain in place for up to 25 years if they sign the deals.
The data systems include those covering national health warehouses, health management information, surveillance and outbreak response, health commodity inventory management, lab management, pharmacy management and electronic medical records.
Masamba also said while continuous sharing of pathogens can boost collaboration, it risks research sovereignty and equitable benefits unless Malawi secures co-authorship, IP protections and joint governance over data and samples.
He said Malawi should only share what is necessary for defined public health functions and no secondary use without Malawi’s written approval.
Stated Masamba: “Come up with a bilateral Data Access Board chaired by Malawi, with veto powers, audit rights, breach notification standards and annual public reporting.
“Further, come up with redress and liability. This means developing clear breach remedies, insurance requirements and dispute resolution under mutually agreed forums, not unilateral jurisdiction.”
In an interview with The Nation last week, Ministry of Health and Sanitation Principal Secretary Dan Namarika conceded that the discussions with US authorities have been back and forth because they border on privacy and sovereignty.
He said while the current US administration has come openly on data, even in previous deals Washington was getting a lot of data and that he previously raised such concerns.
Namarika said in the past, the World Health Organisation (WHO) was providing technical support and helped with data protection as well as pathogen issues.
However, with the US no longer funding WHO, the situation was being discussed by individual countries.
Section 44 (1) of the Constitution provides that “no restrictions or limitations may be placed on the exercise of any rights and freedoms provided for in this Constitution other than those prescribed by law, which are reasonable, recognised by international human rights standards and necessary in an open and democratic society”.
The new deal under the America First Global Health Strategy has already faced bottlenecks in Kenya where a court suspended implementation of the $2.5 billion health aid deal over data privacy concerns.
