States pledge up to £50k for vaccines

Saturday 18 December 2021

Tens of thousands of pounds more will be donated to UNICEF's covid-19 VaccinAid appeal after the States made a qualified commitment to match money donated by the public.

The Overseas Aid & Development Commission has pledged to match donations up to the value of £50,000. This is in addition to an earlier contribution of £85,000 from the Commission's emergency aid budget.

Just under £40,000 has already been raised from public donations - so the Overseas Aid & Development Commission has given another £40,000 to the vaccine appeal. 

The VaccinAid campaign is run by UNICEF UK and Crowdfunder. They want to help deliver the biggest vaccine drive in history to the poorest people in the world.

In the Bailiwick, 90% of adults have received two doses of vaccine. Whereas at the start of this month it was believed that less than 8% of the population of Africa was fully vaccinated.

The World Health Organisation has predicted that only five of Africa's 54 nations are on course to hit a target of fully vaccinating 40% of their population by the end of the year. 

Pictured: There has been a good supply of vaccines to Guernsey and take-up has been high whereas supply of vaccines to poorer countries is lagging behind.  

Deputy Chris Blin, President of the Overseas Aid and Development Commission, said: “I wish to thank all those who have already donated and let them know that their donations will be doubled by the Commission. I also wish to encourage those who have not yet donated to ‘give the world a Christmas gift’ by supporting the cause.

"Any further donations received by 31 December will also be doubled by the Commission up to £50,000. This means that the appeal has the potential to reach at least £100,000.

"Along with the Commission’s previous donation, this would provide over 140,000 much-needed vaccine doses to the developing world. As recent developments have shown, no-one is safe until everybody is safe.”

Pictured: Deputy Chris Blin, President of the States' Overseas Aid & Development Commission.

Anyone who wishes to support the VaccinAid campaign can make donations and register any fundraising HERE.

All money raised will be used by UNICEF to vaccinate people living in poorer countries without access to the quantity of supplies they need.

UNICEF is the only organisation working globally through COVAX, which is a worldwide initiative working for equitable access to covid-19 vaccines.

The UN has an overseas aid target for countries to spend 0.7% of their annual Gross National Income. The States of Guernsey typically contributes less than 0.1%. 

In 2019, the States agreed a target of providing overseas aid equivalent to 0.2% by the year 2030.

The States then cut the Overseas Aid & Development Commission's budget in 2020 and 2021. The budget has been increased for 2022 but only to pre-pandemic levels.