COVID-19: $500 million to be pledged at Paris Peace Forum for coronavirus vaccine access

The countries worldwide, governments, and private charities will pledge more than $500m in the third edition of the Paris Peace Forum held in digital format for the recovery and resilience from the COVID-19 pandemic. The forum held between 11-13 November 2020 is chiefly devoted to the multi-actor response to Coronavirus, aimed at coordination among actors, launching initiatives, enhancing alert systems and preparedness, and boosting local health systems. According to a press release, the forum will dedicate the funds from the ACT-Accelerator initiative, a programme to make the vaccine access, COVID-19 tests, therapeutics available globally. 

At the forum, 100 million euros ($118m) and 50 million euros ($59m) will be pledged by France and Spain. Meanwhile, the European Commission will pledge100 million euros ($118m). Gates Foundation is expected to add another $70m, and UK will announce an additional British pound (S$1.7) for each US$4. The forum held online is being presided by WHO Director-Normal Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, French President Emmanuel Macron, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, and EU President Ursula von der Leyen. The sessions focus on concrete initiatives and projects, such as the ACT-A initiative promoting diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines for all, cybersecurity, or the Finance in Common Summit gathering public development banks from around the world for a greener recovery. 

"The world won’t escape the grip of Covid-19 without making effective medical tools available to all, and that is the aim of the multi-actor ACT-A initiative (Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator),” the forum mentioned in a release.

It added that The Paris Peace Forum will feature two exceptional panels on ACT-A, with French President Emmanuel Macron, Melinda Gates (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation), Tedros Ghebreyesus (WHO), Adar Poonawalla (Serum Institute of India), Marisol Touraine (Unitaid), Seth Berkley (Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance) and many others to discuss vaccines for all and funding needed. 

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Read: Switzerland Adds $109 Million To Its Covid-19 Vaccine Procurement Fund

Governments asked to 'align investments'

Multiple heads of state, government, and international organizations have been scheduled to attend a meeting with the French President Emmanuel Macron to work on a collective response to the Covid-19 pandemic on November 12. Governments worldwide were asked to aligning their investment for a convincing response to the COVID-19 crisis. Anne Hidalgo (Mayor of Paris), Michael Bloomberg (Bloomberg Philanthropies), and Frans Timmermans (European Commission) were scheduled to highlight the “critical roles” required for recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It is now clear that the cost of the Covid-19 pandemic will be all the more exorbitant should not be able to provide a collective response”, Justin Vaïsse, Director General of the Paris Peace Forum said.

Director-General of the Paris Peace Forum said that the indicators of international cooperation were “trending poorly”. The forum was focused on creating advanced multilateralism with respect to the coronavirus pandemic crisis via its ‘Call for Projects’ initiative in the 2020 edition and count global forces “to respond to the crisis.”

Read: Russia Says COVID-19 Vaccine Is 92% Effective On Early Data

Read: Brazil Health Regulator Anvisa Announces Resumption Of Chinese COVID-19 Vaccine Trial

(Image Credit: twitter/@parispeaceforum)