Promises, restrictions: who are Africa's friends in the vaccine battle? - France 24

Johannesburg (AFP)

In the race for the precious Covid vaccines, rich countries have preempted stocks and have not always delivered on their promises when it comes to sharing with low-income countries, such as on the African continent.

To date, only 3.6% of the African population is vaccinated, far from the more than 60% reached in Europe and the United Kingdom.

But why and how did Africa fall behind in this way?

- What situation in Africa?

African countries obtain vaccines through direct purchases from manufacturers, country-to-country donations, or through the WHO Covax mechanism for access to vaccines for low-income countries.

The African Union (AU) has also purchased vaccines which it redistributes to member countries.

But the WHO and AU are struggling to get enough doses due to export restrictions imposed by some producing countries and the priority given by manufacturers to certain governments they have signed agreements with.

African countries are reduced to depend more and more on donations of surpluses purchased by the richest nations.

About three-quarters of the 77.5 million doses promised to Africa have been given, or 57 million, according to Unicef.

- Who gave the most?

Western countries are the quickest to promise.

In June, the G7 announced several hundred million doses which, for the most part, have still not reached the African continent.

The United States leads donor countries with 31.5 million doses, ahead of China (6.8 million), Great Britain (5.3 million) and France (4.5 million), according to reports. official figures.

But that doesn't make us forget that industrialized countries have failed to lift the patent barrier on anti-Covid vaccines to allow low-income countries to produce cheaper generic vaccines locally.

Covid-19: donation of vaccine doses to African countries Cléa PÉCULIER AFP

"This is the story of this pandemic. Everyone is talking, but nobody is doing anything", indignant Fatima Hassan, of the South African NGO Health Justice Initiative.

"The rest of the world doesn't care about Africa."

Rather than wait for donations that put the continent "on a drip", Africa is demanding fair access to the vaccine market.

"You can donate to us but we want to be able to buy" doses, pleaded last week the AU special envoy for Covid-19 at a WHO press conference, calling for the lifting restrictions on vaccine exports.

- What about China?

Almost all Western donations have been made through the Covax mechanism.

But China, which has become a major player in Africa for foreign aid, trade and even the construction of infrastructure, has entered into bilateral agreements with the countries.

But its vaccine strategy has been "hampered by lingering concerns about the effectiveness" of domestically manufactured doses, according to Hugo Brennan of risk consulting firm Verisk Maplecroft.

The supply of vaccines to Africa remains, however, "one of the multiple geopolitical fronts on which the United States and China are arguing," he underlines.

For its part, Russia has seen its vaccine ambitions on the continent undermined in particular by production problems.

- The next step?

Only 2% of the approximately six billion doses administered worldwide have been administered to Africa.

Some hope that a meeting scheduled for this week on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly will bear fruit.

US President Joe Biden, who wants to take the reins of the fight to vaccinate the planet, has invited heads of state, companies and NGOs to a discussion to "end the pandemic".

Mr. Biden compared the effort of the United States, the world's largest vaccine donor, to the US military's entry into World War II.

"The United States has said a lot of positive things about global commitments (...) but this has not resulted in vaccinations," notes Mitchell Warren, however, of the American NGO AVAC, active in vaccination.

So does the continent have enough support to achieve a certain level of immunity?

"For the moment, Africa does not have so many friends ...", notes Cobus Van Staden, researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs.

© 2021 AFP