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The Gavi COVAX AMC Summit “One World Protected” virtual event, hosted today by the Government of Japan and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, raised US$ 2.4 billion from nearly 40 donor governments, the private sector and foundations, exceeding the funding target and bringing the total pledged to the COVAX AMC to US$ 9.6 billion to date
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Japan demonstrated its commitment to ending the acute phase of the pandemic by pledging US$ 800 million at the Summit, making their total contribution to the COVAX AMC US$ 1 billion. Their leadership made way for other donors to help COVAX fulfill its financial ask
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The funds raised will enable Gavi to secure 1.8 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines for lower-income countries participating in the COVAX Facility
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The vaccines, to be delivered in 2021 and early 2022, will enable COVAX to protect almost 30% of the population in 91 AMC economies
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In addition, five countries made new commitments to donate more than 54 million vaccine doses to lower-income countries, including through COVAX, to bridge short-term supply challenges. This brings the total number of doses shared to more than 132 million
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Suga Yoshihide, Prime Minister, Japan – “I made the decision on our contribution, hoping to deliver vaccines, a ray of hope, to as many people as possible, and as early as possible, throughout the world, in an equitable manner. It is our responsibility to overcome the current pandemic crisis and prepare for future health crises, thereby leading the world to ‘build back better’.”
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José Manuel Barroso, Chair, Gavi Board – “Thanks to all our donors, we can now protect not only health care workers, the elderly and other vulnerable people but broader sections of the population, increasing our chances further of bringing the pandemic under control.”
Tokyo / Geneva, 2 June 2021 – World leaders joined forces today at the “One World Protected” - Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) Summit hosted by Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide and Gavi Board Chair José Manuel Barroso to pledge their support to the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC), securing US$ 2.4 billion, reaching a total of US$ 9.6 billion for COVID-19 vaccine procurement. In addition, donors have pledged US$ 775 million for vaccine delivery.
This funding will allow the COVAX AMC to secure 1.8 billion fully subsidised doses for delivery to lower-income countries and economies in 2021 and early 2022. This is enough to protect nearly 30% of the adult population in AMC-eligible economies. The funds raised will also support COVAX to diversify its vaccine portfolio in times of supply uncertainty and new variant emergence, and to plan the scenarios and strategy for public health needs for 2022 and beyond.
Prime Minister H.E. Suga Yoshihide said, “It’s been an honor to co-host the Gavi COVAX AMC Summit today and to contribute a large part of the remaining funding gap in order to deliver vaccines, a ray of hope, to as many people as possible and as early as possible, throughout the world, in an equitable manner.”
“I want to thank Prime Minister Suga and the Japanese people for their leadership in helping drive the global response to COVID-19,” said José Manuel Barroso, Chair of the Gavi Board. “COVAX is the largest and most complex multilateral distribution of vaccines ever undertaken and the solution aimed at ensuring the most at-risk people, everywhere, are protected from the virus.”
The United States of America hosted the launch of the Gavi COVAX AMC Investment Opportunity in April, and today Vice President Kamala Harris attended the Summit, reiterating USA support as a key Gavi partner for more than two decades. Its commitment of US$ 4 billion for procurement and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines for lower-income countries and economies is helping ensure COVAX is equipped to reach its goals.
Alongside the financial pledges, first dose-sharing donations were announced by Belgium, Denmark and Japan, as well as additional pledges from Spain and Sweden, boosting short-term supplies by over 54 million vaccine doses.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has stepped up to support African Union countries with EUR 300 million financing to access vaccines via the COVAX cost-sharing scheme – leveraging domestic resources to procure safe and efficacious vaccines through COVAX.
This EIB EUR 300 million financing announcement is the path forward towards an aggregate commitment of US$ 1 billion from multilateral development banks and international financing institutions to support a cost-sharing initiative enabling AMC-eligible economies to use domestic resources to purchase additional vaccines through COVAX. This will facilitate them to take advantage of COVAX’s global logistics system, globally negotiated volume and prices, and other critical benefits such as the COVAX No-Fault Compensation Scheme Programme.
Elsewhere in the Summit programme, commitments were made to free up supply chains and remove bottlenecks that restrict or slow down the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, raw materials and components. Vaccine manufacturers have reaffirmed their support to COVAX as the only global solution to ending the acute phase of the pandemic.
The Summit was also an opportunity for leaders to reflect on the challenges, successes and lessons learned as Gavi COVAX AMC marks one year since its launch; and look ahead to potential scenarios to address the pandemic and bolster global health security for the future.
The pledges, commitments and support from the global community at the Summit will enable COVAX to continue working towards keeping everyone safe.
“Bringing an end to the COVID-19 pandemic is the most pressing challenge of our time – and nobody wins the race until everyone wins,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi. “Today, as we looked back on one year of COVAX, we saw that global leaders clearly recognise the need for equitable access and support the principle that ability to pay should not determine whether someone is protected from this virus.”
OUTCOMES OF THE GLOBAL VACCINE SUMMIT
New financial commitments to the Gavi COVAX AMC At the event today, a number of donor governments announced significant new commitments worth a total of US$ 2.4 billion towards the 2021 goal. This includes:
US$ 800 million from Japan for the Gavi COVAX AMC AU$ 50 million from Australia for the Gavi COVAX AMC EUR 2.6 million from Austria for the Gavi COVAX AMC CAD 220 million from Canada for the Gavi COVAX AMC EUR 70’000 from Estonia for the Gavi COVAX AMC EUR 10 million from Finland for the Gavi COVAX AMC EUR 100 million from France for the Gavi COVAX AMC ISK 500 million from Iceland for the Gavi COVAX AMC US$ 40 million from Kuwait for the Gavi COVAX AMC CHF 100’000 from Lichtenstein for the GAVI COVAX AMC EUR 1 million from Luxembourg for the Gavi COVAX AMC EUR 40’000 from Malta for the Gavi COVAX AMC US$ 2’500 from Mauritius for the Gavi COVAX AMC US$ 250’000 from Mexico for the Gavi COVAX AMC US$1 million from Oman for the Gavi COVAX AMC EUR 750’000 from Poland for the Gavi COVAX AMC US$ 1 million from Philippines for the Gavi COVAX AMC EUR 50 million from Spain for the GAVI COVAX AMC CHF 125 million from Switzerland for the Gavi COVAX AMC US$ 500’000 from Viet Nam for the Gavi COVAX AMC In addition, the autonomous communities of Basque Country, Catalonia and Extremadura of the Kingdom of Spain have collectively pledged almost EUR 1 million to the Gavi COVAX AMC The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced a US$ 50 million commitment to both: the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC), to purchase COVID-19 vaccines; and to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to support the delivery of these vaccines to lower-income countries and economies.
In addition to these, private sector partners also mobilised significant new resources totalling more than US$ 300 million for the Gavi COVAX AMC. New partners such as UBS Optimus Foundation and Twilio joined COVAX, and existing partners such as Google.org, Mastercard and Visa Foundation increased their commitments in support of vaccine equity. Individuals also contributed to COVAX through the Vaccine Forward Initiative and the Go Give One campaign.
US$ 50 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation US$ 28 million in a new commitment from existing partner Mastercard US$ 10 million in a new commitment from Twilio US$ 6 million from the Go Give One campaign by WHO Foundation.
US$ 3 million in a new commitment from existing partner Visa Foundation US$ 2.5 million through employee giving and matching from Google, building on their existing pledge At least US$ 1.5 million from an ongoing campaign launched by UBS Optimus Foundation US$ 910,000 mobilised to seed a matching campaign by a new coalition of companies including PagerDuty, Russell Reynolds Associates, Salesforce and Workday, supported by Go Give One campaign and Pledge 1% US$ 100,000 from Pratt & Whitney JPY 100 million from Toyota Tsusho SEK 12 million from the Vaccine Forward initiative SEK 2 million from Epiroc AB New dose-sharing commitments to the Gavi COVAX AMC and lower-income countries and economies:
The Summit also saw a number of new dose-sharing commitments, amounting to 54 million, supporting the Gavi COVAX AMC in its immediate supply needs. These included:
30 million vaccine doses produced in Japan to the COVAX Facility, other countries and economies 4 million vaccine doses donated by Belgium to the COVAX Facility 3 million vaccine doses donated by Denmark primarily to the COVAX Facility 15 million vaccine doses donated by Spain to the COVAX Facility (on top of the 7.5 million previously pledged) 2 million vaccine doses donated by Sweden to the COVAX Facility (on top of the 1 million previously pledged)
The first international delivery of doses of COVID-19 vaccines supported by COVAX arrived in Ghana on 24 February. As of today, more than 77 million doses have been shipped to 127 countries across six continents. Doses shared by countries will be used to make up for COVAX’s short-term supply disruption, which is expected to last into the third quarter of 2021.
João Lourenço, President, Angola: “The collective and solid reaction from countries and private donors participating in the One World Protected Summit will help us overcome the enormous challenge facing the populations of the 92 AMC countries – human life and the smooth functioning of our social and economic structure is dependent on it. Angola has received over a million doses thanks to COVAX and hopes we can soon access enough vaccines to cover 20% of our population.”
Fran Alibi, Minister for Health, El Salvador: “The word ‘inspiration’ is the perfect word to describe what COVAX means for El Salvador and how important it is for our country. It has provided a middle-income country like ours access with fairness so that we can work for our people and guarantee that each and every Salvadorian will have the opportunity to protect themselves and their lives from this disease.”
Bounfeng Phoummalaysith, Minister for Health, Lao People’s Democratic Republic: “It is an honour for me to relay to you the importance of the COVAX Facility. We are currently experiencing our first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and are facing numerous challenges in responding to it. Vaccine coverage is an important part of our response and without the COVAX AMC, from whom we have received two allocations of safe and efficacious COVID-19 vaccines, we would be unable to reach it. Without global equitable access to vaccine doses, the pandemic will remain a threat to everyone.”