KfW supports COVID vaccination campaigns and logistics in West and East Africa

At the beginning of September, a financing agreement was signed between KfW and UNICEF for EUR 25 million to improve vaccine logistics in the West African countries of Niger and Benin. KfW is also supporting vaccinations against COVID-19 and other infectious diseases in East Africa. In both projects KfW contributes to the German Last Mile Initiative to combat the Corona pandemic.

The WHO and the international community have set themselves the goal of offering COVID-19 vaccination to at least 70% of the world's population. To this end, the German government is providing special funds to improve vaccination logistics in partner countries with a high level of need.

In Niger and Benin, despite international and national efforts, the COVID-19 vaccination rate falls well short of ambitions. This is mainly due to deficiencies in vaccine logistics, including lack of cold chains, and poor access to vaccines. The current vaccination rate in Benin is 22% and in Niger only 12%. The project now aims to improve logistics and organise vaccination campaigns in order to increase the rates to 60% and 58% respectively. To this end, KfW has concluded a financing agreement with UNICEF for EUR 25 million.

In addition to COVID prevention, further protective measures against communicable diseases such as malaria, diphtheria and tetanus are being financed to achieve a greater leverage effect and further improvements in the health sector. Here, too, awareness campaigns are planned to increase acceptance. In the medium term, this will also pave the way for the introduction of the novel malaria vaccine for children under 6 years of age, which was approved in 2021 and is expected to be able to be administered in West Africa from 2023. To accompany this, the distribution of mosquito nets for malaria prevention is being financed.

Support for vaccination campaigns in East Africa

KfW is also supporting the implementation of COVID-19 vaccination campaigns in the partner states of the East African Community (EAC) on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). EUR 6 million was already provided for this purpose in July this year, followed by a further EUR 2 million in October. The project, which focuses on remote regions in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, includes measures to educate the population in order to eliminate disinformation and vaccination scepticism. In addition, the capacity of the health system to administer vaccinations is being strengthened, for example through the procurement of equipment and materials for health facilities, cold chains, ICT infrastructure, mobile vaccination stations and protective equipment. This is complemented by the development and delivery of training to upgrade health workers.

Originally, the availability of vaccines in EAC countries was limited. Now, supply exceeds demand. Immunisation rates vary widely, from 69% in Rwanda to less than 1% in Burundi. Flanked by regional health systems strengthening measures, the COVID-19 recovery plan and the EAC's One Health strategy, the challenge now is to improve immunisation coverage also in remote areas, thus putting a lasting stop to the pandemic.

The German Last Mile Initiative

In this sense, the projects in West and East Africa are part of the German Last Mile Initiative, which aims to rapidly increase global COVID-19 vaccine coverage and uptake. To this end, the German government has provided technical and financial support to low-income countries. At EUR 850 million, the majority of these funds will go to multilateral organisations working together under the ACT-A international initiative to combat the Corona pandemic, while EUR 224 million will be used for bilateral projects and direct support for vaccination campaigns. In total, Germany is making more than EUR 1.3 billion available for the fight against the pandemic in 2022.