Chairperson of the African Union His Excellency President Cyril Ramaphosa will this afternoon, 27 January 2021, convene a webinar on the Africa COVID-19 Vaccine Financing and Development Strategy.

The AU Chair will convene the Ministers of Health and Ministers of Finance of the African Union Member States as well as experts, private sector leaders, and civil society representatives to offer the opportunity to leading experts to discuss the African COVID-19 Vaccine Financing and Deployment Strategy and concrete actions needed to secure the timely, efficient and effective deployment of COVID-19 vaccines in Africa.

African Union Bureau of Heads of State and Government endorsed the COVID-19 vaccine strategy on 20 August 2020.

The vaccine strategy reflects the input of over 3000 political leaders and technical experts whom the African Union and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) brought together on 24-25 June 2020 to discuss COVID-19 vaccine needs on the continent and regional opportunities for driving vaccine development, manufacture, distribution and uptake.

The strategy aims to immunise at least 60% of the African population with vaccines that have been proven to be safe and efficacious, to create "herd immunity".

The vaccine strategy has three key objectives which are to Accelerate African involvement in the clinical development of a vaccine; ensure African countries can access a sufficient share of the global vaccine supply and remove barriers to widespread delivery and uptake of effective vaccines across Africa.

The webinar is scheduled for 16h00 (CAT) and the opening session and address by the African Union Chairperson will be live streamed on government and Presidency platforms.


Media enquiries: Tyrone Seale, Acting Spokesperson to President Ramaphosa on  083 575 7440/media@presidency.gov.za

Issued by: The Presidency
Pretoria