According to the UN, the COVID-19 pandemic could be defeated in 2022, but only if vaccines, tests and treatments are made available to all people. World leaders are calling for $23 billion to support the ACT-Accelerator, a landmark collaboration that makes the goods accessible to everyone globally. 

The partnership brings together governments, scientists, philanthropists, businesses, civil society and global health organizations such as GAVI, the vaccine alliance; the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and the UN’s health agency, WHO. 

The campaign aims to meet a $16 billion financing gap, and nearly $7 billion for in-country delivery costs, in the bid to end the pandemic as a global emergency this year. The co-chairs of the ACT-Accelerator Facilitation Council, which provides high-level political leadership to advocate for resource mobilization, recently wrote to more than 50 rich countries to encourage “fair share” contributions. 

The financing framework is calculated on the size of their national economies and what they would gain from a faster global economic and trade recovery. “If we want to ensure vaccinations for everyone to end this pandemic, we must first inject fairness into the system”, Guterres said.