In cooperation with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Japanese government provided a new emergency grant of US$1.45 million to improve the vaccine cold chain in Ethiopia.
The funding aims to provide vaccines to Ethiopia through the procurement of cold chain equipment (CCE) including medical equipment such as cold storage facilities and transportation, as “Last Mile Support”.
This will complement the work of the COVAX Foundation and enhance the Ethiopian government’s ability to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of achieving Universal Health Coverage(UHC) through the procurement of CCE and strengthening institutional capacity to manage the CCE to properly use the COVID-19 vaccines.
It is expected that 138 medical facilities will have new or effective CCE in place that meet the requirements of COVID-19 vaccines and other vaccines as well as 230 mid–level cold chain technicians and 420 medical staff have received training on the operation and maintenance of the new CCE as well as on the use and monitoring of the vaccine. As a result, an estimated 3 million people will benefit from this contribution.
Since the outbreak of the COVID -19 pandemic, the international community has been facing a common challenge of ensuring equitable global access and accelerating the roll out of vaccines to achieve the common goal of containing the corona virus.
Accordingly, the Government of Japan has directly supported, with a contribution of US$ 200 million, the establishment of the COVAX facility, an international mechanism for the procurement of vaccines, of which UNICEF is a major partner globally.
