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Missing: Millions of Promised Vaccines for Africa

Sonja Dobson,
Senior Researcher, G20 Research Group Italy, October 30, 2021

It's been nearly one year since the first COVID-19 vaccine was administered, ahead of which G20 leaders committed to "spare no effort" to ensure affordable and equitable access to vaccines for everyone. Yet science analytics company Airfinity has found that G20 members have received 15 times more COVID-19 vaccine doses per capita than sub-Saharan African countries, excluding G20 member South Africa. G20 members have also received 15 times more COVID-19 doses per capita than low-income countries (see Table 1). G20 host Italy has received 13 times more doses per capita than Uganda, and Canada has received 34 times more doses per capita than Sudan.

More than six billion doses have been administered in at least 218 countries globally, although they are concentrated in the richer countries. A third of these have been administered in China and a sixth in India, and only 2% have gone in the arms of Africans. At the G7 Cornwall Summit in June, G7 leaders pledged to donate 1 billion doses to either COVAX or directly to countries, but months later only about 15% of those have been delivered. At the United Nations General Assembly in September, countries made more promises to donate vaccines.

The target of fully vaccinating 10% of the population of each African country by the end of September was not even close to being reached. Only 18 of the 57 countries of the African continent have at least 10% of their population fully vaccinated and those are all countries with relatively small populations (see Table 2). Conversely, nearly half of African countries have fully vaccinated 3% or less or their population. Burundi and Eritrea have only just started vaccinating their populations. The World Health Organization projects that the continent would need 270 million vaccine doses to reach that 10% target, but those have not been delivered. The target of fully vaccinating 40% of the world's population by the end of the year will not likely be reached at this rate either as only about 5% of the African continent is fully vaccinated.

These facts should steer the negotiations G20 leaders are now having about global recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic at their summit in Rome. Without stronger commitments and concrete actions, the updated goal of vaccinating 70% of the world by mid 2022 will be hard to reach. The new task force to fight future pandemics agreed to by the finance and health ministers at their joint meeting on October 29 is a start. But vaccine supply is not the biggest obstacle for most countries in Africa – the biggest obstacle is distribution to remote areas. However, the combination of finance and health in the G20 Joint Finance-Health Task Force may offer a solution as distribution to remote areas is expensive. It has been asked to meet before the end of 2021 to agree on a roadmap and appoint the secretariat, which is a good opening act for the G20 Rome Summit.

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Table 1: Vaccination Rates in the G20 ↩

G20 member	Population partially vaccinated	Population fully vaccinated
Argentina	74%	56%
Australia	75%	63%
Brazil	75%	55%
Canada	79%	74%
China	80%	68%
France	76%	68%
Germany	69%	66%
India	53%	23%
Indonesia	43%	26%
Italy	77%	71%
Japan	77%	72%
Korea	79%	73%
Mexico	55%	43%
Russia	37%	32%
Saudi Arabia	70%	61%
South Africa	25%	20%
Turkey	66%	57%
United Kingdom	74%	67%
United States	67%	57%
European Union	n/a	n/a

Sources: https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps/vaccination-rollout-and-access/
https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2021/health/global-covid-vaccinations/

Table 2: Vaccination Rates in Africa↩

African Country	Population partially vaccinated	Population fully vaccinated
Algeria	4%	11%
Angola	5%	9%
Benin	<1%	1.5%
Botswana	17%	11%
Burkina Faso	<1%	1.3%
Burundi	<1%	<1%
Cameroon	<1%	<1%
Cape Verde	16%	36%
Central African Republic	<1%	6%
Chad	<1%	<1%
Comoros	9%	18%
DRC	<1%	<1%
Djibouti	4%	3%
Egypt	8%	8%
Equatorial Guinea	4%	13%
Eritrea	n/a	n/a
Eswatini	<1%	20%
Ethiopia	2%	<1%
Gabon	1.5%	4%
Gambia	<1%	9%
Ghana	4%	3%
Guinea	6%	5%
Guinea-Bissau	5%	<1%
Ivory Coast	5%	3%
Kenya	4%	3%
Lesotho	<1%	16%
Liberia	n/a	n/a
Libya	16%	6%
Madagascar	<1%	<1%
Malawi	2%	3%
Mali	<1%	1%
Mauritania	3%	12%
Mauritius	4%	67%
Mayotte	n/a	n/a
Morocco	6%	57%
Mozambique	2%	6%
Namibia	3%	10%
Niger	<1%	1%
Nigeria	1%	1%
Republic of the Congo	3%	2%
Reunion	n/a	n/a
Rwanda	14%	14%
St. Helena	14%	58%
Sao Tome and Principe	22%	13%
Senegal	2%	5%
Seychelles	5%	77%
Sierra Leone	3%	1%
Somalia	<1%	2%
South Sudan	<1%	<1%
Sudan	n/a	n/a
Tanzania	0%	1%
Togo	5%	5%
Tunisia	9%	38%
Uganda	5%	<1%
Western Sahara	n/a	n/a
Zambia	<1%	2%
Zimbabwe	5%	17%

Source: Henrik Pettersson, Byron Manley, Sergio Hernandez, Deidre McPhillips and Tatiana Arias, Tracking Covid-19 Vaccinations Worldwide, CNN, October 30, 2021.

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Sonja Dobson will begin a PhD in peace and conflict studies at the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago in in early 2022. She holds a master's degree in conflict studies and human rights from Utrecht University and a bachelor of arts and science in African studies and political science from the University of Toronto. Sonja has worked with the G20, G7 and BRICS Research Groups since 2015, currently serving as editor for the G20 and BRICS Research Groups. She is also the lead researcher on development for the G7 Research Group. Follow her at @SAT_Dobson.