The Youth Cafe participated in the Gavi CSO-COVAX Dialogue on 14 September 2022. The dialogue findings were presented in the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). The 77th Session of UNGA convened leaders from across the world to a historical moment where compounded global challenges of unprecedented scope and scale, impacting the lives of billions of people around the world, were discussed.
Among the key issues discussed was that vulnerable communities are impacted the hardest by a sharp increase in violent conflicts, acute food insecurity, energy shortage, the climate crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and access to vaccines. These compounded crises have severely impacted their access to life-saving immunisation and their socio-economic development, limiting their access to health and non-health services such as education, water, and sanitation.
With equitable access to vaccines at the very centre of its mission, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, has helped vaccinate 981 million children, saved 15 million lives since 2000 through routine immunization and provided more than 1.6 billion COVID-19 vaccines through COVAX 2.
As leaders from across the world gather at UNGA in 2022, it is more important than ever to put the world back on track to achieve Vaccine Equity, the SDGs and Health for All. The dialogue's key deliberation was that no child should miss life-saving immunisation. The Delegates also noted that restoring and leveraging routine immunization is more important than ever if the SDGs are to be achieved.
New immunization data, released on 15 July 2022, shows that 25 million children worldwide missed out on one or more life-saving vaccines in 2021. Of those children, 18 million have never received a single dose of vaccines, also known as Zero Dose Children.
Routine immunisation is the most effective health intervention, essential to prevent outbreaks and the resurgence of eradicated diseases, and fundamental to prevent future pandemics. Reaching vulnerable and hard-to-reach communities with integrated and equitable Primary Healthcare (PHC) services is a pathway to achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and other essential services such as education, nutrition, water, and sanitation.
The delegates called upon the global community to urgently reach zero-dose children and their communities, which are the furthest left behind with no or insufficient access to essential services and restore, maintain, strengthen, and secure long-term investment in routine immunisation and primary health care.
Additionally, Gavi calls on the Member States to continue efforts towards COVID-19 vaccine delivery, particularly in low-coverage countries with a focus on high-risk populations to close the vaccine equity gap.