Geneva: The Break COVID Now 2022 summit, co-hosted by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance alongside the governments of Germany, Ghana, Indonesia and Senegal, saw world leaders come together to reaffirm their support for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines and act urgently to break COVID now.

With Germany, Indonesia and Senegal holding the G7, G20 and AU Presidency respectively, the Summit represented an affirmation of the international community’s support for COVAX’s multilateral approach to equity. regarding vaccines. The event also successfully secured commitments worth $4.8 billion for the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC), the mechanism that supports equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for low-income countries. .

These commitments represent a total of $1.7 billion in new pledges from sovereign donors towards the AMC 2022 funding request, as well as $2.1 billion in commitments through innovative new financial mechanisms provided by the EIB and the US Development Finance Corporation (DFC), and less than $1 billion made available by three Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) – the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the European Investment Bank (EIB) .

The commitments made will allow COVAX to provide urgent delivery support to low-income countries and ensure that dose donations can be shipped and administered. They also enabled Gavi to launch the pandemic vaccine pool to support the future supply of new COVID-19 vaccines, on behalf of COVAX AMC participants, should the need arise. MDB commitments allow these countries to benefit from low-cost financing to purchase additional vaccines on top of those funded by donors.

New donor commitments to the Gavi COVAX AMC include:

• Japan, co-host of the 2021 AMC summit, pledged $500 million
• Germany, co-host of today’s Break COVID Now summit, has pledged 400 million euros
• Canada pledged CAD 220 million
• Brazil pledged $86.7 million
• European Commission €75 million
• Australia pledged A$85 million
• Finland pledged 2 million euros
• Iceland has pledged 250 million Icelandic kroner to Gavi for the COVAX AMC
• Luxembourg pledged 1 million euros
• Vietnam pledged $500,000
• Regional Government of Catalonia, Spain – €290,000
• Biscay Provincial Council, Spain – €100,000
• Estonia pledged €40,000
• Malta pledged €40,000
• The Workday Foundation pledged $300,000
• The CODE(RED) campaign pledged $200,000
• Other donors have also pledged a total of $122.6 million

The pledges made are in addition to commitments made at the One World Protected 2022 event, which launched the AMC 2022 investment opportunity on January 19. Pandemic Vaccine Pool, but were unable to make an announcement due to their budget processes and the short timeline for this emergency appeal.

“We salute this incredible show of global solidarity from so many stakeholders at a time when the world is facing multiple challenges and thank everyone who participated – especially our co-hosts for helping to galvanize support. internationally,” said Professor José Manuel Barroso, Gavi Chairman of the Board. “This pandemic is not over: although gaps in coverage remain, it will continue to wreak havoc on individuals, communities and economies. Achieving fairness is key to breaking COVID now. We cannot afford to wait and risk the virus reversing all the progress that has been made. »

Thanks to donor support, COVAX has been able to build the most diverse COVID-19 vaccine portfolio in the world, shipping more than 1.2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine to low-income countries to date. and paying out more than $600 million in delivery assistance.

Funding for delivery support and accessories is urgently needed to help close the vaccine equity gap by helping countries achieve their national immunization coverage goals faster. The pandemic vaccine pool is an instrument to ensure equitable access to new vaccines in the future, such as variant-matched vaccines, by ensuring that resources are available to make instant installments when needed.

Gavi and its partners announced several new innovative funding initiatives:

• The EIB has committed additional EIB financing of €1 billion at the start of financing in support of the Gavi COVAX AMC, bringing its total commitment to date to €1.9 billion.
• Gavi and the U.S. Development Finance Corporation (DFC) announced the new COVAX Rapid Funding Facility, which will make available up to $1 billion to enable Gavi to quickly monetize pledges to the COVAX AMC, maximizing the impact of these pledges by minimizing the wait time for the corresponding funding to be made available.
• In partnership with MedAcess and the Open Society Foundations, a $200 million risk-sharing mechanism that will help countries quickly access funds if they wish to procure additional vaccines at prices negotiated by COVAX through a mechanism cost sharing.

Olaf Scholz, German Federal Chancellor and G7 President, said: “The global fight against the pandemic will be one of the priorities of the German G7 Presidency. It is important not only to take care of ourselves, but to ensure that the rest of the world is also vaccinated. »

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of the Republic of Ghana, said: “The world is in a good position thanks to COVAX and the collective efforts of the international community under the leadership of the Chairman of the Board of Gavi, Jose Manuel Barroso. . Despite this, many people still remain unvaccinated and unprotected and if there is a new wave of infections or the virus mutates, these people will be in great danger. We must therefore renew our commitment to support low-income countries and support national COVID-19 vaccine targets. »

Joko Widodo, President of the Republic of Indonesia and Chair of the G20, said, “The global health architecture must be transformed to become faster, more responsive and more resilient. This is in line with the priority of Indonesia’s G20 Presidency. Therefore, I would like to extend my support for COVAX’s new funding initiative for 2022, including the launch of the pandemic vaccine pool today. We need to turn “vaccines” into “vaccinations”. Support for capacity building and funding is essential to enable us to recover from this pandemic and deal with pandemics to come. Recover together, recover stronger.

Macky Sall, President of the Republic of Senegal and Chairperson of the African Union, said: “Gavi deserves to be supported as an essential pillar of international solidarity for immunization. This is why, in my capacity as President of the Republic of Senegal and current Chairman of the African Union, I call on all countries, all institutions, all partners to contribute to the replenishment of COVAX resources.

“Equity has always been COVAX’s primary focus. Today’s outcome means we can finally address equity in coverage by helping close the current vaccine equity gap and also in access by ensuring equity of access in the future. The commitment to multilateralism we saw today will continue to inspire us in our efforts to keep people safe everywhere,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi.