Local Production

UN HLPF Side Event, 6 July 2021

Ensuring a Sustainable and Resilient Response to COVID-19 and Emerging Infectious Diseases through Local Production 

United Nations High-Level Political Forum 2021 Side Event

Organized by South Centre, ReAct – Action on Antibiotic Resistance and Innovation + Design Enabling Access at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Tuesday, 6 July 2021, 7:30 AM ET

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SouthViews No. 213, 23 February 2021

Access to Medical Equipment in a Pandemic Situation: Importance of Localized Supply Chains and 3D Printing

By Muhammad Zaheer Abbas, PhD

The response to the COVID-19 crisis highlighted the weaknesses of the free trade system and failures of the traditional supply chains. Public health preparedness for future pandemics demands nation-states to increase their local production of medical supplies in order to reduce their dependence on third countries. Globally connected local production, enabled by digital fabrication tools, is arguably the best policy response to collaboratively address supply-chain vulnerabilities. 3D printing technology, which is the most prominent manifestation of digital fabrication ecosystems, can play a key role in enhancing the local production capacity in a time- and cost-efficient manner. This paper calls for an increased focus on local production and proposes a more systematic use of 3D printing capabilities to address shortages of critical medical equipment in a health emergency.

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