$500 mn to be pledged for Covid vaccine access at Paris forum

An international conference in Paris aims to raise more than $500 million towards ensuring fair access to coronavirus tests, treatment and vaccines for all, including poor countries, the organisers said Thursday.

The third edition of the Paris Peace Forum, which seeks to come up with concrete solutions to global issues, is dedicated to finding ways to ease the pain caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

It takes place as the number of cases is rising rapidly across Europe and beyond.

It also comes just days after American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech reported highly promising results for their vaccine candidate.

During the forum, several countries are expected to announce funding for the so-called ACT-Accelerator, a mechanism led by the World Health Organization that aims to ensure access to tests, treatments and vaccines for all.

According to a statement by the organisers, France will be announcing a commitment of 100 million euros, Spain 50 million and the European Commission 100 million specifically for the vaccines part of ACT-A.

The British government is also set to declare a contribution of one additional pound for each four dollars announced.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said they would pledge $70 million for vaccines.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, French President Emmanuel Macron, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, will take part in an online discussion set to be streamed online.

In September, the United Nations estimated that the ACT-Accelerator had only received around $3 billion of the $38 billion needed to meet the goal of producing and delivering two billion vaccine doses, 245 million treatments and 500 million diagnostic tests over the next year.

Forum members also promised the creation of a high-level expert panel which would curate all available science concerning the interactions between humans, animals and changes in the environment.

"The pandemic showed us how much correlation there is between the health of humans, that of animals, and that of the planet," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told the forum.

At the finance part of the Peace forum, a group of development banks pledged to re-focus their investments to take account of climate and development targets set by the UN and the Paris accord of 2015.

Public development banks invest $2.3 trillion every year, 10 per cent of the world's total investments.

The banks also promised to promote projects that reduce inequalities, protect the environment and pursue "sustainable development" goals, without offering examples.