West and Central Africa

ADDIS ABABA/NEW YORK, 29 February 2024 - Today, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and UNICEF announced an extended partnership dedicated to strengthening primary healthcare, supply chain management, pooled procurement and local manufacturing, and emergency response. The collaboration builds on the 2022-2024…

NEW YORK/NAIROBI/DAKAR, 23 August 2022 – Children in the Horn of Africa and the Sahel could die in devastating numbers unless urgent support is provided, as severe malnutrition and the risk of water-borne disease collide – UNICEF warns during World Water Week. “History shows that when high levels of severe acute malnutrition in children combine…

ADDIS ABABA/NEW YORK, 2 August 2021 – Having secured access to up to 400 million doses of the J&J COVID-19 vaccine, the African Union (AU), African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) and UNICEF are partnering to ensure the seamless procurement and delivery of vaccines to AU Member States. This partnership will help ramp up efforts to mitigate…

NEW YORK, 8 July 2021 – UNICEF has signed an agreement with Janssen Pharmaceutica NV to supply up to 220 million doses of the J&J single-dose vaccine for all 55 Member States of the African Union (AU) by the end of 2022. Some 35 million doses are to be delivered by the end of this year. The agreement between UNICEF and Janssen Pharmaceutica NV…

To ensure widespread access to COVID-19 vaccines across Africa, the African Union launched the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT). The trust aims to secure vaccine doses to complement initiatives such as COVAX and attain a target immunization of 60 per cent of Africa’s population. Partners in the initiative include the African Export-Import…, UNICEF’s role within AVAT, UNICEF will procure and deliver COVID-19 vaccines on behalf of AVAT to AU Member States, with the additional opportunity to provide supplemental logistics and related services for countries that request it. The initiative complements the COVAX Facility’s aim of ensuring rapid and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines worldwide. In July 2021,…, Explore also

“This is the first time for us to receive protective personal equipment (PPE) in this health facility so we can protect ourselves and the patients,” explains Nelly Mukweta, a health worker in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  The provision of PPE meant that health workers in the region could continue to safely go about their work, which…, Supply chain workforce , Hosted by UNICEF’s Supply Division, PtD works with its coalition members and partners to create a competent, supported and adequately staffed supply chain workforce that spans the public and private sectors within the health system.   With the COVID-19 outbreak, PtD, supported by the  FIA  Foundation, provided funding to four projects in sub-…, Responding to surging health needs in a crisis , The PPE provided to Nelly and her colleagues was delivered by  VillageReach,  a non-governmental organisation (NGO) and one of the four winning entries. In addition to the provision of PPE to community health workers, VillageReach provided the logistics workforce with the information and training needed to respond to additional demands put on the…, Supply chain: the key to health commodity access , Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic the organisations involved in the Last Mile Health Supply Chain COVID-19 Support Program have been providing supply chains with invaluable support to aid the provision of essential health products and services.   The pandemic has further highlighted the need for well-functioning supply chains and these projects are…

Each year, UNICEF coordinates an average of 2,700 shipments to deliver over two billion doses of vaccines, to reach approximately 45 per cent of the world’s children under five years of age. From March to May in a typical year, UNICEF would have made more than 700 shipments of vaccines to countries – most as airfreight on commercial flights. In…

ABIDJAN, Côte d'Ivoire, 26 February 2021 – The COVAX initiative shipped 504,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, licensed by the Serum Institute of India, to India, and 505,000 syringes to Abidjan, on 26 February 2021. This marks the second batch that has been shipped and delivered to Africa by the COVAX Facility in an unprecedented effort…

COVAX announces 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine licensed to Serum Institute of India have arrived in Accra, Ghana; further deliveries to Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire are expected this week   Final first round of allocations for doses of AstraZeneca/Oxford and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, to the majority of countries and economies…

In recent years widespread outbreaks of Ebola have seen thousands of children become infected, lose their lives, or be orphaned by the deadly virus.   Mary’s* mother passed away during the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone in 2014. Her mother showed symptoms of the deadly disease after helping care for a sick woman in her neighbourhood. She thought…, Rapid response to future outbreaks  , Last week, UNICEF and partners announced a major development in the fight against the disease – the UNICEF, WHO, IFRC and MSF announce the establishment of a global Ebola vaccine stockpile establishment of a global Ebola vaccine stockpile that will, over time, contain half a million doses for immediate release to respond to any new Ebola outbreak…, From stockpile to the country within seven days , UNICEF has taken a leading role in the stockpile’s creation, not just through the signing of a supply agreement for the Ebola vaccines to be made available within it, but also in its ongoing management. The stockpile is stored in Switzerland and ready to be shipped to countries for emergency response. If an outbreak occurs and a country requests…

Djibril, a 2-month-old boy, receives a routine vaccine in Man, Côte d'Ivoire. Djibril, a 2-month-old boy, receives a routine vaccine in Man, Côte d'Ivoire. In western Côte d'Ivoire, 2-month-old Djibril is in hospital for an important reason: he’s receiving a routine vaccination that is vital for his health. It’s April 2020, and while COVID-19 has…, Transporting vaccines, As the largest single vaccine buyer in the world, UNICEF has decades of experience organizing the delivery of vaccines for routine immunizations and disease outbreaks such as the Ebola virus. This is why UNICEF, in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), is leading efforts to procure and supply approved COVID-19 vaccines…, Solar powered vaccine storage, “West and Central Africa is one of the most complex environments you will find,” says Jean-Cedric Meeus, UNICEF’s Chief of Supply for the region. “We are dealing with the challenge of delivering COVID-19 vaccines to major cities, but also to extremely remote villages. We are preparing for all scenarios.” Since 2018, UNICEF – working alongside…, Lessons learned during the pandemic, Making sure cold storage facilities are in place from manufacturer to where they will be administered is one big piece of the COVID-19 vaccine delivery puzzle. Another is ensuring that airlines dedicate enough space to transport them across the globe. UNICEF has stepped up its planning with the airline industry for this moment, but it can also…, Looking ahead, There is no doubt that the challenge of delivering COVID-19 vaccines around the world in 2021 is a colossal one for UNICEF, but work is well underway to put critical pieces in place to make it happen. We have already started buying more than 1 billion syringes and safety boxes so we can deliver them to countries before vaccines arrive. Efforts to…

The vaccine protects against the Zaire ebolavirus species. The table shows Vaccines pricing data awarded price per dose, product, supplier and calendar year, based on a multi year supply agreement.