COVAX

No one is safe, until everyone is safe

COVAX is the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator. The ACT Accelerator is a ground-breaking global collaboration to accelerate the development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines.

COVAX is co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi and the World Health Organization (WHO), alongside key delivery partner UNICEF. In the Americas, the PAHO Revolving Fund is the recognized procurement agent for COVAX. It aims to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world.

WHO has multiple roles within COVAX: It provides normative guidance on vaccine policy, regulation, safety, R&D, allocation, and country readiness and delivery.

WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization develops evidence-based immunization policy recommendations. Its Emergency Use Listing (EUL) / prequalification programmes ensure harmonized review and authorization across member states.

WHO provides global coordination and member state support on vaccine safety monitoring. It developed the target product profiles for COVID-19 vaccines and provides R&D technical coordination.

Along with COVAX partners, WHO has developed a no-fault compensation scheme as part of the time-limited indemnification and liability commitments.

WHO also led, together with UNICEF, the Country Readiness and Delivery workstream, which provided support to countries as they prepared to receive and administer vaccines.

Recognizing the urgency of turning vaccine doses into vaccinated, protected communities, WHO, UNICEF and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance launched the COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery Partnership (CoVDP). The CoVDP builds on existing resources to support the AMC 92 and focuses foremost on the 34 countries that were at or below 10% coverage in January 2022. Working closely with countries to understand bottlenecks to vaccination, the CoVDP offers access to urgent operational funding, technical assistance and political engagement to rapidly scale up vaccination and monitor progress towards targets.

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