In October 2021, the Global Alliance of Foundations issued an open letter to the leaders of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund calling for measures to ensure a fair and equitable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
In their letter, the foundation leaders argued that the pandemic has “divided the world in two.” Wealthy nations in the Global North have broad access to vaccines that not only reduce the number of deaths due to the virus and its variants but also help stave off economic catastrophe. In the Global South, however, low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) struggle to gain access to enough of the life-saving vaccines and the funding needed to support their distribution.
The alliance advocated for two primary objectives: to achieve the World Health Organization’s vaccination target of at least 40 percent of the population in LMICs by the end of 2021—a goal that was not met—and 70 percent by mid-2022, and to spur high-income countries to reallocate at least $100 billion in recycled Special Drawing Rights for LMICs and commit to a $100 billion replenishment of the World Bank’s International Development Association fund in support of pandemic response and economic recovery in the poorest nations.
PND asked Rosalind McKenna, a special advisor to the Open Society Foundations, a founding member of the Global Alliance of Foundations, about vaccine equity and the role that philanthropic organizations must play to help end the disparities while the world works to end the pandemic.
Philanthropy News Digest: What is the Global Alliance of Foundations, and what is its role in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic?
Rosalind McKenna: The alliance brings together leading philanthropies from around the world that share the goals of urgently accelerating COVID-19 vaccine access globally and ensuring a global economic recovery. The Aliko Dangote Foundation, Archewell Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Chaudhary Foundation in Nepal, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Ford Foundation, Fundación Saldarriaga Concha in Colombia, Kagiso Trust in South Africa, Mastercard Foundation, Mo Ibrahim Foundation, Open Society Foundations, OppGen Philanthropies, Rockefeller Foundation, and William and Flora Hewlett Foundation are some of the foundations collaborating to date, and they are inviting other philanthropies to join their efforts.
These foundations recognize that their voice and impact are stronger together. With their international networks and experience in advancing global health and economic justice and supporting civil society, they can catalyze more funding, identify and address critical gaps, and advocate collectively and strongly for bold, global goals.
Justice means supporting low- and middle-income countries to develop the capacity to make their own vaccines and medicines for COVID and for future pandemics. Justice means ensuring low-income countries benefit from economic stimulus like that which helped wealthy nations weather the economic storm caused by COVID.
Philanthropic leaders recognize the need for structural solutions, not charity, to ensure vaccine justice for countries in the Global South. Justice means supporting low- and middle-income countries to develop the capacity to make their own vaccines and medicines for COVID and for future pandemics. Justice means ensuring low-income countries benefit from economic stimulus like that which helped wealthy nations weather the economic storm caused by COVID.
In addition to the individual efforts of specific foundations, members of the alliance have also collaborated to provide surge funding to advocacy and campaigning efforts like those of the ONE Campaign.
PND: What are the main barriers to improving the equitable distribution of vaccines worldwide?
RM: COVID vaccine access is a tale of haves and have-nots. While some countries throw away unused third doses, others have yet to make even first doses available to their people. Inequitable vaccine access is prolonging the global COVID crisis and causing countless preventable deaths.
Solidarity, not charity, will end COVID. We must treat the life-saving tools needed to fight COVID—diagnostics, treatment, and vaccines—as common goods, not instruments of profit and/or nationalism. Successfully addressing vaccine inequity requires multi-tasking to ensure increased vaccine supply, including by supporting intellectual property waivers and other licensing and technology transfer efforts so that whatever capacity exists globally to produce more vaccines is utilized and manufacturers do not artificially limit supplies; more equitable distribution of existing vaccine supplies, including high-income countries fulfilling vaccination donations they have promised to low- and middle-income countries, and low- and middle-income countries being able to buy more vaccines directly from manufacturers; sufficient resources for all countries to procure vaccines, including through pooled mechanisms like COVAX, the pooled mechanism for procurement and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, and the Africa Vaccine Acquisition Task Team; and funding to support vaccine deployment, including through multilateral development bank programs. We also need to make sure that vaccine manufacturers and wealthy nations meet their delivery commitments to COVAX.
PND: The world failed to meet the WHO’s goal of vaccinating at least 40 percent of every country’s population by the end of 2021. What role can philanthropy play in improving the prospects of getting more people to get vaccinated? And what kinds of partnerships with governments would be most effective in achieving those goals?
RM: The world missed the WHO target of all countries having vaccinated 40 percent of their populations by the end of [2021]. Sadly, at the current rate of progress, some countries are on course not to hit that target for another decade and beyond.
Caution about the effectiveness of existing vaccines to provide protection to new variants and an increased appetite for booster doses will put further pressure on global vaccine supplies. Ongoing strangulation of the vaccine supply by existing manufacturing suppliers continues to hamper global COVID-19 response efforts. Clearly, the pharmaceutical industry has not learned the lessons of the HIV pandemic and the need to ensure rapid and broad access to life-saving treatments.
Foundations in the alliance have already invested more than $4 billion to respond to the pandemic since early 2020. Individually and together, the foundations are supporting partners, including the ONE Campaign, Oxfam, People’s Vaccine Alliance, and numerous nongovernmental organizations with the deep roots, powerful voices, and local expertise to help bring vaccines to those countries that needed them. They are also engaging global leaders and regional and multilateral institutions to advocate for policies to accelerate vaccine access globally, which would benefit all nations.
Greater political leadership to overcome this pandemic is one of the biggest challenges we face. Foundations are supporting many groups who are working to make the case to governments of the need for effective domestic pandemic response and a solidarity-based global response.
Greater political leadership to overcome this pandemic is one of the biggest challenges we face. Foundations are supporting many groups who are working to make the case to governments of the need for effective domestic pandemic response and a solidarity-based global response. Foundations are also building the capacity of key institutions; for instance, the Mastercard Foundation and the Open Society Foundations are among those providing funding to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to strengthen its leadership and ability to support countries in effective COVID response. This includes support to initiatives like the Partnership for African Vaccine Manufacturing.
PND: What have we learned from the Delta variant that can be applied to the Omicron variant? And what should foundations do to help prepare for future variants?
RM: The Omicron variant reinforces that the pandemic is not over anywhere until it is over everywhere. The more the virus can spread, including among unvaccinated populations, the more it can mutate, increasing the risk for everyone and prolonging the pandemic. The greatest measure we can take to prevent future variants is global vaccination, including prioritizing vulnerable populations in the first instance.
The Global Alliance of Foundations will continue to champion global vaccination, working toward the WHO’s target of 70 percent vaccination in 2022. Variants will make it harder to reach that target. All stakeholders, including foundations, governments, multilateral institutions, civil society organizations, the private sector, and the media must work together in the coming year if we are to meet the 70 percent target.
The importance of public health surveillance systems, early warning and transparent sharing of data was also underpinned by the discovery of the Omicron variant. Authorities and governments that highlight scientific developments about the virus must not be penalized for their vigilance.
PND: What makes you hopeful about the prospect of boosting vaccination rates and getting better control of COVID in 2022?
RM: Vaccinating the world is an incredible investment. Lawrence Boone, chief economist for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, recently described the ongoing cost of measures to protect the economy in the pandemic against the cost of global vaccinations as “completely disproportionate.” We cannot continue to ignore evidence of the health, economic, and social costs of this pandemic and what we stand to gain by bringing it to an end.
While the world failed to meet the 40 percent vaccination target in dozens of countries, we did see an increase in the volume of doses supplied through COVAX. In December, 300 million doses were supplied. We need a further ramping up of supplies in 2022 to lift vaccination rates globally.
Also in December, the new Corbevax vaccine was authorized for production using a license from its original developers. It can be manufactured and distributed without the kind of patent restrictions that normally limit production. This is the kind of solidarity that has been missing from vaccine manufacturers so far and which other pharmaceutical companies should follow.
In the first few months of 2022, the Biden administration will convene heads of state for a Global COVID-19 Summit to commit to shared actions to end the pandemic. We need to see bold action by world leaders, vaccine manufacturers, and the private sector to ensure that sufficient doses are produced and fairly allocated, and that we mobilize enough resources to administer them everywhere they are needed. Private philanthropy will play an important role in advancing that agenda and encouraging others to do the same, because COVID anywhere is a threat to people everywhere.
—Matt Sinclair
L&D Associates' Grant News 