The Rockefeller Foundation has announced the launch of a two-year, $55 million initiative to support country-led COVID-19 vaccination efforts.

The Global Vaccination Initiative will support efforts to fully vaccinate at least 90 percent of the most at-risk populations in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Only 15 percent of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while high-income countries have deployed as many as four shots to individuals.

As global supplies of vaccines increase and stabilize, challenging demand-side issues are preventing countries from accelerating their vaccination campaigns. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated $6.8 billion is needed to support COVID-19 vaccine demand generation and expects funding to come directly from national governments as well as development banks and other international grant financing. This is occurring at a time when the World Bank estimates that low-income nations need between 24 percent and 30 percent of their GDP to respond to and recover from the pandemic’s health and economic crises, but with interest rates rising, their external debt outstanding has grown to more than two-thirds of GDP. To help address those issues, the initiative will invest in projects to boost vaccine demand by focusing on three levers: data and digital tools, capacity building, and financing.

“The world has every tool it needs to make COVID-19 endemic for everyone, everywhere—but only if those tools are in the hands of the people who need them most,” said Rockefeller Foundation president Rajiv J. Shah. “With this new commitment, the Rockefeller Foundation will help countries across the Global South reach at-risk populations, simultaneously increasing COVID-19 vaccination rates and building health systems capable of addressing future COVID-19 outbreaks and other public health threats.” 

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