02 June 2021, Wednesday, Geneva, Switzerland – President Rodrigo Roa Duterte announced the Philippines' additional contribution of USD1 million to the GAVI COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC), during the Summit held today co-hosted by the Government of Japan.
In his statement in the Summit, President Duterte affirmed the country's commitment to support inclusion and equity in global responses to public health challenges, emphasizing that “the COVID-19 pandemic will only end when everyone has access to safe and effective vaccines. The imbalance in access between rich and poor countries must be corrected or there will be no real global recovery. As both a donor and recipient country we count on the COVAX AMC initiative to bring much needed vaccines to developing countries. It is our moral responsibility to face this crisis with greater solidarity and urgency. The Philippines is pleased to commit US$1 million as contribution to our collective investment for the people of the world.”
The Philippines is both a recipient of the COVAX AMC, one of the 92 eligible economies, and a donor, making a contribution of the USD100,000 through GAVI, in March 2021, and an earlier contribution of USD 10,000 through CEPI. The Philippines was also one of the first economies to receive shipments of the vaccines (AstraZeneca and Pfizer) through the COVAX facility.
COVAX is the vaccine pillar of the Access to COVID-19 tools (ACT) Accelerator – the global-risk sharing mechanism for pooled procurement and equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, intended to make vaccines accessible to the most vulnerable. The COVAX Facility, coordinated by GAVI-the Vaccine Alliance, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the World Health Organization, serves as a platform in providing equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines to COVAX Facility participating countries and economies.
The Philippines supports multilateral approaches to ending the pandemic, having participated in the WHO-led Solidarity trials for therapeutics and vaccines. In making this further contribution to GAVI for the COVAX AMC, the Philippines is determined to share its capacities to pursue equitable vaccine access across the world, and promote the COVAX AMC financial model as a means to achieve global health security for all.
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