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Development

Investing in the health of our neighbourhood

Vaccine and health summary infographic long description below

Australia is supporting access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines for our neighbours

Over $700m for Pacific, Timor-Leste and Southeast Asian neighbours to safely and effectively roll out vaccines

End-to-end support

Our $523.2 million regional vaccine access and health security initiative is providing end-to-end support

  • Procuring enough doses to fully vaccinate up to 6 million people in the Pacific and 9 million in Southeast Asia
  • Training health workers and providing cold chain equipment
  • Advising on public messaging campaigns
  • Supporting safety and quality monitoring
  • Drawing on technical experts from Australian flagship Institutions

Sharing our vaccines

We are sharing our vaccines with our neighbours

  • A commitment to share Australian vaccines with the Pacific and Timor-Leste, starting at 10,000 doses per week
  • Quantity to be kept under review and ramped up when possible

Working with our partners

Australia, the US, India and Japan launched the quad vaccine partnership

  • For the production and distribution of at least one billion vaccine doses for the Indo-Pacific by late 2022
  • Australian funding of $100m in 2021-22 for vaccine distribution in Southeast Asia

Ensuring global expertise benefits our region

Australia has invested $80 million in the COVAX advance market commitment

  • Ensuring equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines
  • To date, the COVAX AMC has deals in place for almost 1.8 billion vaccine doses. COVAX AMC has delivered more than 275,000 doses to the Pacific and Timor-Leste, and 7 million doses to Southeast Asia

Investing in the health of our neighbourhood

Going beyond vaccines

Until our region is safe and healthy, neither are we

Stopping the spread

For early detection and management of outbreaks and to access accurate and timely information

  • Delivered over 150,000 testing kits and supplies in Southeast Asia and the Pacific
  • Supporting returning workers to safely quarantine in the Pacific and Timor-Leste
  • Working with faith-based and civil society partners, such as the Red Cross, for community outreach and awareness campaigns in the region on COVID-19

Maintaining essential healthcare

To continue life-saving care for diseases beyond COVID-19

  • $242 million for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (2020-22)
  • $69 million for the Global Polio Eradication Program (2015-23)
  • $36.9 million for the UN Population Fund (2016-20) for family planning
  • $22.5 million for UNAIDS (2017-22)

Protecting frontline workers

So health workers are safe to continue delivering essential care

  • Provided over 26 tonnes of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and medical supplies, and 40 tonnes of humanitarian supplies to the Pacific and Timor-Leste
  • Supporting small businesses in countries like Indonesia and Fiji to switch to producing local PPE and medical supplies to meet demand
  • Provided critical care training to over 100 nurses from 17 Pacific Island countries and territories

Sharing Australian expertise

To share Australian expertise and experience managing the pandemic

  • Deployed Australian Medical Assistance Teams to respond to COVID-19 outbreaks, including in Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste
  • Provided experts in fields including public health, epidemiology, pathology and emergency medicine to countries in our neighbourhood

Investing in new solutions

To develop new treatments and diagnostics for diseases like COVID-19

  • $300 million for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (2021-2025)
  • $26.25 million for the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (2018-2023)
  • $12 million for the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (2019-2022)

Figures as at 11 May 2021

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