American development bank U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and Citi Risk Management Solution on Wednesday jointly announced a risk management solution to help Gavi to mitigate risk and overcome financial hurdles with governments that are funding COVID-19 vaccine purchases through the COVAX Facility.

At the US COVID-19 Summit, the risk management team stated that the collective and global action will be required to address and end the COVID-19 pandemic. DFC financing for vaccine-related efforts of nearly USD600m was committed during the Biden Administration.

Through the DFC support, Gavi will pre-purchase up to 2bn vaccines directly from manufacturers and allocate these vaccines rapidly and equitably throughout the world. DFC's financing will offer protection against political risks in nine self-financing countries across Latin and Central America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, participating in COVAX, covering more than USD383m in insurance.

Co-led by Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the World Health Organization (WHO), COVAX aims to provide fair and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for every country in the world.

COVAX, the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, is co-led by CEPI, Gavi and WHO – working in partnership with UNICEF and PAHO as delivery partners, developed and developing country vaccine manufacturers, the World Bank and others.