The COVAX Facility aims to ensure the fair worldwide distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and, in particular, is tasked with providing vaccines for the world’s poorest 92 countries. Donated vaccines are a key component of the global vaccine supply. To make sure that the donated vaccines are made available to other countries as quickly as possible and are distributed according to need, the COVAX Facility collects and coordinates the vaccine donations for the participating countries (you will find information on the exact process below). In order to optimise the donation process and to facilitate planning for the recipient countries, COVAX works closely together with manufacturers and donor countries.

With a view to ensuring a smooth vaccination process on the ground, COVAX and its partners also support countries with weak healthcare systems in preparing their vaccine rollouts, including through providing training for healthcare professionals and information for national decision-makers. Furthermore, countries can apply for additional funding via the COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery Support (CDS) Programme to finance the distribution of vaccines, that can be used, for example, for cold chains or communication campaigns. The programme has 822 million US dollars at its disposal, of which 180 million euro were provided by Germany in 2021.

Through their vaccine donations, donor countries help ensure poorer countries have faster and better access to vaccines, thus also contributing towards fair global distribution. Around 45% of the vaccine doses distributed by COVAX are donated. In principle, only vaccines with an emergency-use listing from the World Health Organization (WHO), i.e. which have been classified as safe and effective against COVID-19, can be donated via COVAX. In addition, only vaccines which are still in the hands of the manufacturers can be given to other countries via COVAX.

COVAX and the donor countries work closely together to make the donation process simple and efficient. To this end, COVAX and its partners have developed principles for vaccine donations, which the German Government also uses as guidelines. They include the greatest possible planning certainty with regard to the donations, for example through adequate notice. That enables COVAX and the recipient countries to make the necessary preparations and lowers transport costs. As a rule, vaccines are donated without a stipulated purpose in order to ensure the flexible and fair distribution of doses. Furthermore, the donated doses should, if possible, have a shelf life of at least ten weeks on arrival in the recipient country.

The donation process consists of several steps which have to be completed for each new donation pledge.

The first step is the donation pledge and acceptance. The vaccine manufacturer informs the donor country that it has been allocated doses to be donated. If the donor country decides to donate these doses via COVAX, it informs COVAX of the details of the donation (e.g. vaccine manufacturer, number of doses). COVAX must then formally accept this donation and inform the vaccine manufacturer.

In the next step, it is decided which countries are to receive what volume of doses. COVAX allocates the donation to a potential recipient country. This is done on the basis of the distribution mechanism developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) for the fair global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. The distribution mechanism takes into account a country’s vaccination rate, acute need based on the severity of the pandemic in the respective country, as well as a country’s ability to use the doses quickly.

COVAX informs the recipient countries of the allocation and they prepare for the deliveries in the third step. This also includes administrative aspects such as the necessary import papers.

The last step is the delivery, which is normally carried out by UNICEF. UNICEF is responsible for all the logistics, in particular the proper transport of the doses while maintaining the necessary cold chain.

The length of the process depends in particular on the vaccine manufacturer, the reaction of the recipient countries as well as UNICEF’s transport logistics.

As soon as the vaccines have arrived in the recipient countries, the countries themselves are responsible for storage, further distribution and the maintenance of the cold chains. If needed, COVAX and its partners assist the countries with the further distribution (see above under tasks of COVAX).