GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance (GAVI), has launched a campaign to raise at least $5.2 billion for its Advance Market Commitment for COVID-19 Vaccines (COVAX AMC) to establish a Pandemic Vaccine Pool, provide bundled finance to strengthen delivery systems in recipient countries, and cover essential ancillary costs.

Launched in 2020 as a collaboration between GAVI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, the World Health Organization, and UNICEF, COVAX has delivered a billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines since January 2021. With confirmed supplies sufficient to protect approximately 45 percent of the population of AMC economies, COVAX requires additional funding to respond to the needs of individual countries in implementing national vaccination strategies and adapting them to Omicron and other future variants. The new effort, outlined in the report Break COVID Now: The Gavi COVAX AMC Investment Opportunity (104 pages, PDF), calls for $3.7 billion to fund a Pandemic Vaccine Pool of 600 million additional doses to address uncertainties and related risks, including boosters, additional coverage, new variant vaccines if required, and to ensure a reliable supply for the poorest countries. The campaign also aims to raise $1 billion in catalytic delivery funding to enable governments to deliver vaccine doses rapidly and safely without undermining routine immunization activities and $545 million to cover costs such as syringes, transport, and insurance.

According to GAVI, the private sector and philanthropists recently committed $66 million; commitments announced by national governments include 500 million Norwegian kroner ($55.59 million) from Norway, €23 million ($26.04 million) from the Netherlands, €9.5 million ($10.75 million) from Ireland, €5.27 million ($5.96 million) from Finland, and NZ$9 million ($6.01 million) from New Zealand. The Spanish government has pledged €3.5 million ($3.96 million) to COVAX and an additional €10 million ($11.31 million) in support of GAVI’s core vaccination activities.

“COVAX has delivered more than one billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines in just under a year—an unprecedented achievement in global public health given all the well-known challenges that were faced in 2021,” said GAVI chief executive Seth Berkley. “I want to thank our donors for making this possible. In 2022, we can help break COVID by adapting our support to ensure doses are used rapidly, get into arms safely, [and] are responsive to country preferences and coverage targets. This will help the world to reduce pandemic risks and uncertainties.”

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