A large-scale donation to try to allow Africa to catch up with its vaccination delay.
While the continent displays only 2% of vaccines, the Elysee has announced the sending of 10 million doses of AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines over the next three months.
This partnership between Paris and the AU provides that these doses "will be allocated and distributed within the framework of the African Fund for the acquisition of vaccines (Avat) and the mechanism for a global access to the vaccine (Covax)", two initiatives intended to allow Africa to try to catch up in vaccination compared to developed countries.
"A strong and welcome gesture", according to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa
"The (Covid-19) pandemic can only be overcome through intense cooperation between multilateral, regional and national actors," said President Emmanuel Macron, quoted in a press release.
"I want us to act together by leveraging the know-how and political legitimacy of African leaders and building on our strong partnership with the African Union," he adds.
10 millions.
This is the number of vaccine doses that France will deliver to the African Union via COVAX by the end of October.
Because the vaccination rate remains low in Africa and we defend equitable access to vaccines.
Faced with the pandemic, all united.
- Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) August 30, 2021
For his part, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa described the French donation as "a strong and welcome gesture of human solidarity and political cooperation at a time when the world needs it most."
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During a meeting devoted to this subject with Emmanuel Macron in Pretoria in May, Cyril Ramaphosa denounced "a vaccine apartheid" regretting that some countries receive an "unlimited" number of vaccines while a very small number of Africans are protected.
We spent time discussing the challenge of vaccination.
We are disappointed that Africa has vaccinated 2% of its total population whereas developed economies have vaccinated up to 60% of their total populations.
This inequality needs to be addressed.
https://t.co/6bFWMsUIk4
- Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 #StaySafe (@CyrilRamaphosa) August 27, 2021
Avat is a pooled procurement mechanism to enable AU Member States to procure enough vaccines to meet at least 50% of their needs.
It is complementary to Covax, whose objective is to provide the remaining 50% through donations.
According to the Elysee, "enough vaccines have already been purchased under the Avat initiative to allow, by September 2022, the vaccination by African countries of 400 million people, or a third of the African population , at a cost of three billion dollars ”.
