Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the scale of funded demand from Covax vaccine distribution programmes for African states in fully utilising available covid vaccine production capacity.

The UK is committed to ending the acute phase of the pandemic as soon as possible and strongly supports the COVAX Facility as a key mechanism to deliver this. We are among the largest donors to COVAX's Advance Market Commitment, providing £548 million that will help supply at least 1.8 billion COVID-19 vaccines to up to 92 low and middle-income countries by early 2022. The UK will also donate 100 million COVID-19 vaccines to countries in need, 80 per cent of which will go through COVAX.

The UK recognises that community demand as well as health system capacity and vaccine hesitancy are key factors for delivering an effective vaccine rollout. Through FCDO's Africa Vaccine Confidence Campaign, the UK is working with experts at the Wits University in South Africa to build vaccine confidence. The UK, along with partners in COVAX, is also working with country governments to help health systems be better prepared in delivering vaccines. This includes engaging communities to build trust, provide correct information and encourage uptake.