Report: Virtual Meeting on The African COVID-19 Vaccine Financing and Deployment Strategy

Key points

• The COVID-19 pandemic has caused devastation on the African continent, with more than 3.4 million confirmed cases and nearly 87,000 COVID-19 deaths to date; it has also severely impacted the continental economy, education, health programmes and other elements critical to Africa’s Agenda 2063.

• Since the beginning of the pandemic, the African Union’s response has been anchored in solidarity and collaboration and followed the “whole of Africa” approach. It has created institutions, such as the African Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP), which are critical to the pandemic response and will also continue to support African economic integration beyond the crisis.

• Safe and efficacious vaccines against COVID-19 are the only sustainable way of ending the pandemic globally and on the African continent. Vaccines must, therefore, be considered a public good and must be accessible to all.

• Vaccine nationalism is a very real threat to the international community’s goal to improving the health outcomes of all the world’s populations and achieve economic recovery. No part of the world is safe until all parts of the world are safe.

• The African Union’s ambitious vaccination goal of at least 60% of the population will require the continued close collaboration with international partners such as the World Bank and the COVAX partners, as well as the continued efforts of the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT) for vaccine financing and acquisition.