By Kuni Tyessi
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has signed an agreement with the African Union (AU) to supply 55 African countries COVID-19 vaccines.
The agreement comes as the African continent faces the steepest surge in
COVID-19 cases yet, and vaccine supply challenges have left many countries
with large unvaccinated population.
Also, the agreement will result in the supply of up to 220 million
single-dose vaccines by 2022 as part of UNICEF’s broader support for the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) to help provide vaccines for the 55
AU member states.
The AU established African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) in November 2020
to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to the African continent, with the goal of vaccinating
60 per cent of each AU country’s population.
UNICEF will procure and deliver COVID-19 vaccines on behalf of the AVAT
initiative. Other partners include the Africa Centres for Disease Control and
Prevention (Africa CDC) and the World Bank. Multiple vaccines are
anticipated to be part of the initiative’s portfolio, Janssen’s single-dose vaccine
is the first to be included.
In a statement released on Friday, UNICEF Executive Director, Henrietta Fore,
said the agreement secured an option to order another 180 million doses, bringing the maximum access up to a total of 400 million doses by the end of 2022.
“UNICEF has signed an agreement with Janssen Pharmaceutica NV to supply up to 220 million doses of the J&J single-dose vaccine for all 55 Member States of the African Union (AU) by the end of 2022. Some 35 million doses are to be delivered by the end of this year.
“The agreement between UNICEF and Janssen Pharmaceutica NV will help implement the Advance Purchase Commitment (APC) signed between the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) and Janssen in March of this year” she said.
Under the plan, the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and AVAT have signed a cooperation agreement on behalf of the AU for the development of an Advance Procurement Commitment (APC) Framework to support Member State access to COVID-19 vaccines.
“African countries must have affordable and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines as soon as possible. Vaccine access has been unequal and unfair, with less than 1 per cent of the population of the African continent currently vaccinated against COVID-19.
“This cannot continue. UNICEF, with its long history of delivering vaccines all around the world, is supporting global COVID-19 vaccinations efforts through AVAT, COVAX, and other channels to maximize supply and access to vaccines,” Fore said.
Drawing upon decades of experience as the largest single vaccine buyer in the world as it does annually for routine immunization, UNICEF is acting as a procurement and logistics agency on behalf of the AVAT partnership.
The statement said UNICEF stands ready to facilitate the procurement, transport and delivery of vaccines as soon as they become available and AU member states are ready to receive them.
“With its extensive capacity and decades of expertise in managing freight, insurance and transport of vaccines which require strict adherence to cold chain requirements, UNICEF will work with the vaccine industry, freight forwarders and transport companies to get the doses to the communities that need them.
“Janssen’s COVID-19 vaccine received a WHO Emergency Use Listing (EUL) on 12 March and is relying on a global supply network to produce the vaccine. The latest site for production, Aspen Pharmacare in Gqeberha, South Africa, was approved by the WHO on 29 June. Deliveries of the vaccine are expected to begin later in the 3rd quarter of 2021, with allocations to be determined by the Africa CDC.
“Vaccinating the world against COVID-19, as the virus continues to spread and mutate, is one of the largest and most complex collective health undertakings the world has ever seen, and we need all hands on deck.
“In the race to defeat this virus, equity is not a ‘nice to have’ — it’s an absolute necessity. This pandemic has cost everyone something, and some people everything. Only together can we bring the suffering to an end,” said Fore.
