Several senior African politicians are in Paris on Thursday for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron at a global summit where a billion dollars will be formally pledged to increase the production of vaccines in Africa.
Leaders of Botswana, Ghana, Rwanda and Senegal as well the heads of the World Health Organization (WHO), the African Union (AU) and the Gavi vaccine alliance will attend the Global Forum for Vaccine Sovereignty and Innovation.
The European Commission, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, South Korea and the United States have pledged more than one billion dollars.
Around three quarters of the sum will come from Europe.
The Paris summit, which will be live-streamed on the Gavi website, will mark the start of Gavi’s five-year plan for spending the cash.
Macron will outline why donors should invest in immunisation projects in Africa. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is also expected to back Macron's drive with an address to the summit via a videolink.
The event will also witness the launch of the African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator (AVMA). The brainchild of Gavi and African disease prevention and control centres will provide funding for regional vaccine manufacturing in Africa.
"The AVMA will make a strong contribution to the AU’s ambition to manufacture at least 60 percent of the total vaccine doses required on the continent by 2040," said a Gavi spokesperson.
"It will also help the global effort to strengthen African health sovereignty at all times, including for pandemic preparedness and response."
Vaccine inequalities
Plans for the summit were revealed during the WHO's World Immunisation Week in April as part of the continuing effort to highlight the inequalities – which were underscored during the Covid pandemic – over access to drugs and vaccines around the world.
Wealthy nations such as France, Britain and Switzerland, where most big pharmaceutical firms are based, hoarded the majority of doses, while Africa was left well behind. Switzerland, for example, destroyed more Covid vaccine doses than it administered.
Several areas in Africa are enduring cholera outbreaks as well as shortages of vaccine doses.
"Specific announcements will be made during this forum to respond to this vaccine shortage," the Elysée Palace said.
The WHO's public health emergency of international concern over the coronavirus lasted between 30 January 2020 and 5 May 2023.
During the crisis, France's foreign ministry said it made more than 126 million vaccine doses available, especially to African countries, as part of the Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator.
"France and its European partners are strongly committed to boosting immunisation efforts worldwide and to supporting fair access to vaccines for all," a foreign ministry spokesperson said.
