GAVI, The Vaccine Alliance

GAVI is public-private international health cooperation that aims to improve vaccination access in low-income nations. By monetary measure, Gavi Alliance distributed more than 50% of overall donor aid for health and most donor help for vaccination in 2016.

COVAX, the vaccination pillar of the said Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, is co-led by Gavi. The COVAX Facility, a worldwide risk-sharing framework for pooled purchase and fair distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, will be coordinated.

Gavi Vaccine Alliance advocates for the vaccination of over half of the world’s children. Although the efficiency of its health-system-strengthening projects is questioned, it also offers financing to enhance health systems and educate health professionals throughout the developing countries.

Overview of Article

Gavi Upsc is an expected question this year, owing to the contribution this year. The Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, established in April 2020 by World Health Organization (WHO), its European Commission, and France in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, has COVAX as one of its three pillars.

The ACT Accelerator is a collaborative platform for developing, manufacturing, and ensuring equity in access to Covid-19 diagnostics, treatments, and vaccinations. Vaccines (COVAX), Therapeutics, and Diagnostics are the three primary pillars.

The COVAX facility continuously studies the Covid-19 vaccine ecosystem to find the best vaccine options based on scientific excellence and scalability but also works with producers to incentivize them to expand their manufacturing capacity before the FDA approves vaccines.

Relevance in UPSC Prelims/ Mains (Gs 1, 2 etc)

The UPSC Prelims has 2 papers, General Studies I and II.

The GS-I of the IAS exam includes topics such as:

• Important national and worldwide events are now taking place. India’s history and the Indian National Movement
• India’s and the world’s physical, social, and economic geography.
• Constitution, Political Systems, Panchayat Raj, Public Affairs, Rights Issues, and other aspects of Indian politics and governance are discussed.
• Policies relating to Sustainable Development, Unemployment, Inclusion, Demography, Social Sector Initiatives, and other economic and social development aspects.
• Environmental Ecology, Biodiversity, and Climate Change are general topics that do not need specialty.
• Science in general.

Such current affairs questions, newly initiated policies, and government actions are common questions here.

The Gavi Alliance UPSC questions have a good chance of appearing in this test. Learn more about the UPSC prelims exam pattern and find more about the UPSC Syllabus at the linked article.

Current Issue

The Gavi Vaccine Alliance Upsc questions can ask about the current issue or the context concerning India.

Early on in the pandemic, it became clear that to stop the worldwide disaster, we needed not just COVID-19 vaccinations but also to ensure that everybody on the globe had access to them. This prompted world leaders to demand a solution that would speed up the research and production of COVID-19 vaccines.

This also counted for diagnostics and treatment and to ensure that people in all nations had quick, fair, and equal access to them.

COVAX holds the world’s biggest and most diversified portfolio of COVID-19 vaccinations and, as such, offers the world’s greatest prospect of quickly ending the pandemic’s acute phase.

Governments, international health organizations, producers, scientists, the corporate sector, civic society, and charities are working together to provide creative and fair access to COVID-19 diagnosis, treatments, and vaccinations. The latter is the center of the COVAX pillar.

It is the only global answer to this pandemic since it is the only initiative to assure that people from all walks of life, regardless of money, would have COVID-19 vaccinations once they become available.

Context with India

The UPSC exam can also be specific to GAVI’s role in India.

India became the first implementing nation to donate to Gavi in 2014, investing USD 4 million over four years from 2013 to 2016.

India raised its commitment to Gavi in 2018, investing USD 8 million over four years from 2018 to 2022. PM Modi had emerged as a prominent advocate for vaccination in India and throughout the world, allowing India to speed up its efforts to achieve universal immunization.

PM Modi contributed USD 15 million towards the Gavi 2021-2025 initiative at the Global Vaccines Summit on June 4, 2020.

Gavi UPSC can be regarding out-of-the-box initiatives in our country, including the vaccination drive in Bihar.

Vaccinating children on rushing trains may sound excessive. Still, it is exactly this type of unconventional thinking that is altering India’s fate, allowing the country to spend nearly 3 years without a single instance of wild poliovirus. Bihar is now using the same cutting-edge techniques as other vaccinations, with astounding results.

In less than 10 years, Bihar has gone from having only 18 percent of its children vaccinated — in all three vaccines, including diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis; a rate much too low to have a substantial influence on mortality – to having more than 85 percent of its children vaccinated in all three. Furthermore, this has a strange, synergistic impact, which is assisting in the improvement of polio vaccination at the same time.

Way Forward

The current affairs quiz would require sincere preparation and practice.

To know about the UPSC notes for exam preparation, head on to
the linked article and keep in mind the important topics.

With the UPSC 2022 date announced- 05.06.2022- it’s recommended to revise your weak spots and practice for the general studies II paper as well.