Emmanuel Macron has pledged that France will double the number of vaccine doses it donates to poorer countries. “We will pass from 60 million to 120 million doses offered,” said the French President in a video broadcast during the Global Citizen fundraising concert in Paris on Saturday.
“The injustice is that on other continents, obviously, vaccination is way behind. In Africa, barely 3% of the population has been vaccinated – we need to go faster, stronger,” he added.
France will commit to helping UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund, formerly called, United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) and health systems in a more organised vaccine distribution in the African continent.
Moreover, France will also redirect 20 percent of the special funding it received from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) towards projects designed to restart the economies of African countries, the French President added.
“If all the major powers do the same as France, we will reach 100 billion dollars for Africa,” Macron said in his message during the event.
According to an AFP tally drawn from official sources, Africa’s 53 countries, with a population of more than 1.3 billion people, has had a total of 10 vaccine doses per 100 people.
In contrast, the United States and Canada, with a population of just over 368 million people, has had 120 doses per hundred people.
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