AU Commission, Gavi sign MoU to drive vaccines access in Africa

 By Ben Eguzozie

The African Union Commission (AUC) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi), recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to drive access and accelerate the uptake of life-saving vaccines across the African Union-member states towards supporting immunisation, providing technical and learning assistance and health systems strengthening.

The MoU was signed on behalf of the African Union Commission chairperson by Minata Samate Cessouma, the AU commissioner for health, humanitarian affairs & social development and Jean Kaseya, director general, Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and Seth Berkley, Gavi chief executive officer.

 The partnership builds on the historic Addis Declaration on Immunisation (ADI), which aims to ensure that everyone in Africa – regardless of who they are or where they live – receives the full benefits of immunisation. It includes 10 commitments to increase political, financial and technical investments in immunisation programs. The evolving direction of this partnership is bound to accelerate the attainment of health security as premised in the AU Agenda 2063 and the New Public Health Order (NPHO).

According to Cessouma, the AU commissioner for health and humanitarian affairs and social development said knowing that children of today are the leaders of tomorrow, they are prone to preventable life-threatening diseases. “We — current leaders — must do all it takes to protect and secure their future.‎‎ 

The AU health, humanitarian affairs and social development commissioner declared that he was well-pleased with the growth of the partnership between the AUC and Gavi, which is certain will accelerate reducing the number of zero-dose children worldwide by 2030.

Director-General of Africa CDC, Kaseya said, in September 2022, the African Union Commission and Africa CDC launched the New Public Health Order, which offers insights and a roadmap towards health security on the continent. The collaboration of the AUC and Gavi will further relate to Africa CDC-led initiatives for vaccine uptake in AU member states, as well as support investments in the goal to locally manufacture 60% of the vaccine doses required on the continent by 2040,” underscored the.

Seth Berkely, chief executive of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, said, as an alliance of governments, partners, civil society, industry and others, Gavi has a longstanding commitment to support access to life-saving vaccines through sustainable immunisation programmes, and to collaborate with countries to strengthen health systems across Africa. 

Berkely said the MoU is the strengthening of shared determination to protect more children against vaccine-preventable diseases, and to help realise the AU’s vision for sustainable vaccine manufacturing and the NPHO on the continent.

Through the MoU, AUC and Gavi commit to work together to scale up and strengthen routine immunisation, focusing on reaching “zero dose” children — children that have not received a single dose of a routine vaccine; build sustainable regional vaccine manufacturing in Africa; undertake joint advocacy to boost vaccine demand for routine vaccines; strengthen primary health care systems and bolster diagnostic and surveillance capacity for diseases such as yellow fever, cholera, and typhoid; and communicate jointly on routine immunisation, pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (PPR), vaccine access and delivery.

The AUC and Africa CDC, in April 2021, established the Partnerships for African Vaccine Manufacturing (PAVM) to steer a bold goal that will enable the African vaccine manufacturing industry to develop, produce, and sustainably increase supply, from less than 1 percent, currently. This goal can be reached through achieving sustainable and reliable economies of scale by launching mechanisms that create demand certainty for manufacturers while facilitating country procurement. The AU Bureau of Heads of State and Government further requested Gavi and other partners to procure a percentage of all vaccines produced by the continent. In December 2022, the Gavi board approved a plan to support the development of a regionally diversified vaccine manufacturing ecosystem, based on three pillars: support for strategic antigen selection by manufacturers/countries, market shaping and demand creation. The initiative, supported by the African Union, Africa CDC, G7 and other stakeholders, also envisages the possibility of a fourth pillar, the design of a new financial instrument in the form of an Advance Market Commitment (AMC) for African vaccine manufacturing.

The global COVID-19 pandemic and climate change impact have jeopardised the health, security, and livelihoods of people across Africa and impeded the progress made over the years in reaching over 400 million children with vaccines; and averting more than 9.9 million future deaths on the continent. The major focus of this new agreement is forging new and strengthened partnerships to reach the millions of “zero-dose” children, particularly in marginalised settings, that still lack access to vaccines and other essential services in addition to providing a concrete framework for the AUC and Gavi to jointly address these challenges, identify gaps and monitor progress to achieve universal access to immunisation and drive positive impacts on the continent.