Month: Feb 2023

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External Evaluation of the Access To COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A)

The Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) was launched in April 2020 to enable an effective and equitable global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was established at a time of urgency and uncertainty – less than three months after WHO determined that the outbreak of the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) was a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (30 January 2020).

ACT-A was the first global initiative of its kind, responding to the need for unprecedented global collaboration to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. ACT-A’s original aim was to “develop essential health products for the fight against COVID-19 and to ensure they are distributed equitably through a rapid and ambitious programme of work to develop, test, bring to market, procure and distribute new diagnostics, drugs and technologies, while taking steps to help ensure health systems can deliver these tools to the people who need them.”

In September 2020, the ACT-A Facilitation Council (FC) was established to provide high-level advice, guidance, and leadership to facilitate the work of ACT-A. In July 2022, the FC co-chairs – Norway and South Africa – commissioned an independent, external evaluation of ACT-A and invited six other countries and four civil society representatives to join the ACT-A External Evaluation Reference Group to oversee the evaluation.

This external evaluation was a rapid, forward-looking exercise, carried out between 11 July and 10 October 2022. Its main objective was to learn from ACT-A experiences and to identify key lessons learnt for future pandemic preparedness and response. More specifically, the evaluation aimed to provide learnings for institutional solutions to enhance global equitable access to medical countermeasures (MCMs) in the future.

Please note: This report was updated on 25 October 2022 with a new preface and some factual inaccuracies corrected. 

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ACT-A Comments

Addendum to the full report on the External Evaluation of the ACT-Accelerator, comprising comments from the ACT-Accelerator agencies and partners in response to the evaluation. 

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Annexes

Updates to the evaluation report.  

Detailed inputs and proposed factual/data corrections

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ACT-Accelerator Transition Plan (1 Oct 2022 to 31 Mar 2023)

This plan outlines how the ACT-Accelerator will support countries as the world transitions to long-term COVID-19 control.   

Recognizing the evolving nature of the COVID-19 virus and pandemic, the plan outlines changes to ACT-A’s set-up and ways of working, to ensure countries continue to have access to COVID-19 tools in the longer term, while maintaining the coalition’s readiness to help address future disease surges. 

Developed through a consultative process with ACT-A agencies, donors, industry partners, civil society organizations (CSOs) and Facilitation Council members, the plan summarizes priority areas of focus for the partnership’s pillars, coordination mechanisms and other core functions, and highlights the work to be maintained, transitioned, sunset, or kept on standby. 

The next phase of ACT-A partners’ work will centre on three overarching areas: 

  • Focusing research and development (R&D) and market shaping activities to ensure a pipeline for new and enhanced COVID-19 tools 
  • Securing institutional arrangements for sustained access for all countries to COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments, including oxygen 
  • Concentrating in-country work on new product introduction (e.g., new oral antivirals for those at highest risk) and protection of priority populations (e.g., full vaccination of health care workers and older populations), in support of national and international targets 

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Addendum to the ACT-Accelerator Transition Plan (1 Oct 2022 to 31 Mar 2023): Key learnings and perspectives from ACT-A Pillars and Partners to inform ongoing processes and discussions focused on strengthening the global health architecture for pandemic preparedness and response [NOTE: This document includes corrections implemented on 16 November 2022 to the sub-section on Therapeutics (pages iv – v).]

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ACT-Accelerator: Quarterly Update Q2: 1 April – 30 June 2022

The Q2 Update charts progress achieved by ACTAccelerator partners between 1 April and 30 June 2022. The partners responded collectively to the global evolution of the pandemic and provided continued support to low- and middle-income countries with the development, procurement, and delivery of COVID-19 tests, treatments, personal protective equipment (PPE) and vaccines.

Data are drawn from the ACT-Accelerator and Multilateral Leaders Task Force Global COVID-19 Access Tracker (GCAT) which tracks country access to COVID-19 tools. Data is also drawn from WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard, UNICEF COVID-19 Vaccine Market Dashboard, and consolidated reports from each of the ACT-Accelerator Pillars and the Health Systems and Response Connector.

This Q2 Update features a profile of Cambodia’s remarkable vaccine distribution success and the support of ACT-Accelerator agencies in equipping the country with COVID-19 tools to accelerate the country’s path to recovery.

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ACT-Accelerator: Quarterly Update Q1: 1 January – 31 March 2022

The Q1 Update charts progress achieved by ACT-Accelerator partners between 1 January and 31 March 2022 as they responded collectively to the global evolution of the pandemic and continued to support low-and middle-income countries with the development, procurement, and delivery of COVID-19 tests, treatments, personal protective equipment (PPE) and vaccines.

Data are drawn from the ACT-Accelerator and Multilateral Leaders Task Force Global COVID-19 Access Tracker (GCAT), which tracks country access to COVID-19 tools. Data is also drawn from the WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard, UNICEF COVID-19 Vaccine Market Dashboard, and consolidated reports from each of the ACT-Accelerator Pillars and the Health Systems and Response Connector.

This Q1 Update features a profile of Senegal and highlights how ACT-Accelerator partners have boosted the country’s national COVID-19 response.

A snapshot of vaccine delivery in Ethiopia is also provided as an illustration of progress through collaboration in a challenging context.

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The ACT-Accelerator: Two years of impact

The two-year impact report for the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator details impact, case studies and timelines of key milestones for the Diagnostics, Therapeutics and Vaccines pillars, as well as the Health Systems and Response Connector.

Highlights of the partnership’s achievements include: enabling 40 countries to begin their COVID-19 vaccination campaigns, delivering over 1.4 billion vaccine doses to 145 countries through COVAX, helping build the sequencing capacity in Southern Africa that first detected the Omicron variant, and negotiating unprecedented deals with the world’s largest oxygen suppliers to increase access in more than 120 low- and middle-income countries. 

The report also looks ahead at the partnership’s push to close its urgent financing gap and focus on ensuring access to scarce tools, scaling up delivery and uptake in countries, and informing deliberations on the future global health security architecture.

COVID-19 can only be downgraded as a global threat once vaccines and new antivirals are rolled out equitably, with robust systems of testing and sequencing built up, so new variants can be detected early and responses quickly adapted.

The report emphasises the need for countries to act in solidarity to end the acute phase of the pandemic and highlights the ACT-Accelerator’s vital work in making this happen.

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ACT-Accelerator: Quarterly Update Q4: 1 October – 31 December 2021

The Q4 Update charts progress achieved by ACT- Accelerator partners between 1 October and 31 December 2021 as they responded collectively to the global evolution of the pandemic and continued to support low- and middle-income countries with the development, procurement and delivery of COVID-19 tests, treatments, personal protective equipment (PPE) and vaccines.

Data is drawn from the ACT-Accelerator and Multilateral Leaders Task Force Global COVID-19 Access Tracker (GCAT)1 which tracks country access to COVID-19 tools. 

Data is also drawn from WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard2, UNICEF COVID-19 Vaccine Market Dashboard and consolidated reports from each of the ACT-Accelerator partners.

This Q4 Update features a profile of Honduras and describes how ACT-Accelerator partners have helped mitigate the impact of the pandemic and supported the national COVID-19 response in a country challenged with ongoing humanitarian crises.

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ACT Accelerator: Quarterly Update Q3: 1 July – 30 September 2021

Note: Report updated on 15 Sept 2021 with removal of reference to the average price of antigen RDTs on page 3, removal of reference to price reductions in diagnostics on page 4, and the addition of references to US$ 202m in funding for in-country vaccine delivery on pages 2 and 8.

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Update: the Q3 2021 Quarterly Update can be found here. 

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ACT Accelerator: Quarterly Update Q2: 1 April – 30 June 2021

9 March 2022: The Q3 Update was amended to ensure that values for diagnostics, treatments and PPE procured, delivered, and funds awarded to countries are in line with the WHO Supply Chain Database data, and to reflect cumulative amounts since the start of the pandemic rather than for the 2021 calendar year. The introduction to the Health Systems & Response Connector section was amended to include the Global Financing Facility. 

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