Challenge
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed weaknesses in healthcare infrastructure in the developing world. Africa has very limited vaccine manufacturing capacity and currently produces just one percent of all the vaccines it consumes, which has presented significant hurdles to vaccinating the population. Across the continent, less than five percent of the population has been vaccinated for COVID-19.
Solution and Impact
DFC is providing a $3.3 million technical assistance grant to Fondation Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD) to support development of a vaccine production hub that will serve Senegal and the other countries of West Africa. The project, which will also receive support from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the French development agency, AFD, and the European Investment Bank (EIB), will help address one of the greatest challenges of the pandemic by expanding vaccine manufacturing capacity on the continent that has the lowest vaccination rate in the world.
DFC’s support for this project advances the Biden Administration’s work to expand access to vaccines around the world by boosting manufacturing capacity in multiple regions, in large and small countries, and with different technologies. It also aligns with the Administration’s COVID-19 Global Response and Recovery Framework, and builds on collaborative work with the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which have a longstanding relationship with IPD.
In addition to expanding access to COVID-19 vaccines, the new manufacturing hub will bolster long-term health infrastructure on the continent and build resiliency to future health challenges.