WED, 11 MAY, 2022-theGBJournal | EIB President Werner Hoyer joined leaders from the G7, G20 and the African Union in Berlin last Sunday for the Break COVID Now summit, hosted by the German Chancellor.
President Hoyer pledged an additional €1 billion, subject to EIB shareholder approval, to help Gavi COVID-19 Vaccines Advance Market Commitment (COVAX AMC) respond quickly to unexpected COVID-19 pandemic risks.
This funding will allow Gavi to frontload additional capital, support the pandemic vaccine pool, improve vaccine supply and delivery logistics and also help acquire doses from local manufacturers, particularly in Africa.
The Break COVID Now summit aims to improve global health security by increasing availability to vaccines and enabling an expedient response to future pandemics.
Individuals, communities, and economies will continue to be harmed by the COVID-19 epidemic as long as coverage gaps exist.
The Gavi COVAX AMC summit seeks to raise $1.1 billion for urgent delivery support and launch a $2.7 billion Pandemic Vaccine.
To achieve the world’s largest and fastest global vaccine rollout, COVAX has established a worldwide procurement, shipment, and delivery system centred on vaccination equity: getting COVID-19 vaccines to low-income countries. COVAX has provided approximately 1.2 billion vaccination doses to AMC-supported countries.
The Gavi COVAX AMC has now vaccinated 42 percent of the population of low-income countries with two doses, compared to 58 percent globally. In January 2022, 34 countries had less than 10% coverage; currently, that figure is 19.
For the first time in two years, ensuring more vaccine supplies is no longer the world’s top priority. COVAX can deliver the doses AMC-supported countries need, when they need them. These achievements have been enabled by contributions to the AMC, including by the EIB, which have funded Gavi’s advance purchase agreements on behalf of COVAX, as well as dose donations.
COVAX continues to adapt to ensure lower-income countries have the support they need: now, and in the future. COVAX provides AMC eligible economies with flexible and adaptable support that can help them reach their vaccination targets and expand these targets
Gavi has worked with partners like the EIB to expand the existing array of innovative financial products.
New partnerships are announced ahead of the Gavi COVAX AMC summit, giving donors more options to make multi-year pledges, frontload cash, and for the first time, structure some of those commitments as contingent pledges; and making it easier for AMC eligible countries and their MDB financing partners to purchase additional doses through COVAX.-EIB
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