Translating Africa´s local vaccine ambition into measurable benchmarks: a country readiness assessment index (CRAI) to accelerate africa´s vaccine manufacturing

Political leaders have pledged that 60% of Africa's routine vaccines will be produced on the continent by 2040, an ambitious target given that the continent currently produces less than 1% of its vaccine needs. A wave of investments in vaccine manufacturing initiatives, show momentum, yet takeoff challenges expose structural fragilities. The objective of this commentary is to present the rationale and architecture of a composite Country Readiness Assessment Index (CRAI) that will measure ecosystem readiness and thereby guide investments, policy reform needed to achieve Africa's 60% manufacturing target. CRAI's architecture will integrate enabling domains, each of which will be backed by verifiable indicators and then weighted through expert consultations to produce a composite score. This design is novel, and the validation will be the first attempt to test such an index empirically. We here outline CRAI's conceptual foundation, step-wise development plan and validation strategy across preselected countries, arguing that such an index is the missing catalyst for turning Africa's manufacturing ambition into reality.