MFA: Finland participates in work promoting global access to vaccines

The Summit was attended, among others, by Bill Gates from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari represented Finland.

“The pandemic influences all nations and it is therefore important that we work together. All countries must be involved in the solution to the pandemic and no one is safe until all are safe. The global distribution of the vaccine must be equitable, affordable and transparent independent of where the vaccine is developed and from where it is funded,” Minister Skinnari emphasised in his address to the Summit.

Finland intends to continue its support to Gavi in 2021.

Support directed to the poorest countries’ healthcare systems promotes global health security. Well-functioning systems are more effective in preventing the outbreak and spread of infectious diseases. It is therefore important for Finland that a COVID-19 vaccine be made globally available. Attention should also be paid to ensuring that women, girls and persons with a disability and other vulnerable individuals have opportunities to protect against the disease caused by coronavirus.

Gavi was created in 2000 to strengthen global protection against the threat of epidemics and to promote the immunisation of children against life-threatening infectious diseases. Gavi has helped vaccinate almost half of the world's children. It promotes the availability of a COVID-19 vaccine in the poorest countries of the world and works in close cooperation with, among others, the WHO, the World Bank and Unicef.

Inquiries: Kirsi Airio, Special Adviser to the Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, tel. +358 50 574 1729, and Pasi Pöysäri, Director, Unit for Sustainable Development and Climate Policy, tel. +358 295 350 022.

The email addresses of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs are in the format firstname.lastname@formin.fi.