Browse the corpus

Ayoade Olatunbosun-Alakija is running late for our video call because of back-to-back meetings in Geneva as the newly appointed WHO Special Envoy and Co-Chair of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-Accelerator), a global collaboration to accelerate equitable access to COVID-19 health tools. Her Geneva visit will help her “join the dots to help move us from working in silos to working better collectively to overcome COVID-19”, she tells me in between her last meeting and catching a flight back home to Abuja, Nigeria. Alakija is an experienced global health leader and activist, but she notes: “I’ve never been motivated by career goals, what motivates me is making a difference to people's lives… I’m an activist for social justice at heart. What drives me is the quest for equity and justice for all humanity, no matter their colour, creed, gender, or affiliation.” A prominent voice in the pandemic, she has highlighted the global structures and power imbalances that have led to COVID-19 vaccine inequity, especially in Africa. For her, the issue “illustrates the different values ascribed to lives in different parts of the world. The virus has had the upper hand, self-interested approaches are short-sighted as variants continue to spread. Enlightened self-interest is sorely needed to address vaccine equity and end the acute phase of the pandemic.”

er, the issue “illustrates the different values ascribed to lives in different parts of the world. The virus has had the upper hand, self-interested approaches are short-sighted as variants continue to spread. Enlightened self-interest is sorely needed to address vaccine equity and end the acute phase of the pandemic.” In a complementary role to her WHO position, Alakija is a Co-Chair of the African Union's multistakeholder coalition the African Vaccine Delivery Alliance (AVDA). “Our goal at AVDA is to get vaccines from ‘PortsToArms’ to save lives and livelihoods. In achieving this, AVDA also wants to strengthen health systems for routine immunisations across the continent, both to ensure nobody gets left behind, and so that we support health systems to end the acute phase of the COVID-19”, she says. John Nkengasong, Director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and AVDA Co-Chair, describes Alakija as “truly a global health champion” who “has exercised remarkable leadership and courage” in the pandemic. “She has become the voice of inequity for vulnerable populations. She speaks on the issue with passion and never hesitates to commit herself to seeking solutions.”

d Prevention and AVDA Co-Chair, describes Alakija as “truly a global health champion” who “has exercised remarkable leadership and courage” in the pandemic. “She has become the voice of inequity for vulnerable populations. She speaks on the issue with passion and never hesitates to commit herself to seeking solutions.” After completing her medical degree at Nigeria's University of Ibadan in 1991, Alakija worked in clinical roles in the country before doing a public health MSc at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in the UK. She became a research fellow at LSHTM, working on the National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles with Kaye Wellings, and then took up a position as the Health and Development Regional Officer for UNICEF Pacific in 1998. Still in her twenties and a new mother, Alakija dealt with presidents and ministers across different countries, led multicountry behavioural health surveys in the region in collaboration with WHO and UNICEF, and chaired the AIDS technical working group for the region. The humanitarian crisis in the Lake Chad Basin took her back to Nigeria, where she became the Chief Humanitarian Coordinator for the Government of Nigeria in what she describes as her “biggest challenge” to date. Leading the joint national and international humanitarian response to the crisis in 2016–19, Alakija helped scale-up action across multiple sectors, including health. She went on to found the Abuja-based Nexus Hub, an innovation centre, research, social development, and emergency response unit for the west Africa and Sahel region.

joint national and international humanitarian response to the crisis in 2016–19, Alakija helped scale-up action across multiple sectors, including health. She went on to found the Abuja-based Nexus Hub, an innovation centre, research, social development, and emergency response unit for the west Africa and Sahel region. With many high-income countries rolling-out COVID-19 booster vaccines, Alakija is concerned about the implications. “Vaccine inequity drives the spread of viral variants. The two-tiered systems of haves and have nots means low-income countries are being left in a perpetual game of catch-up—two vaccines to be safe is now three…it is a game where the prize is life in an uneven playing field.” Part of the solution will be ramping up vaccine manufacturing and production, and Alakija has been advocating for Africa to have these capabilities. “It is not feasible to rely on the manufacturing capability of Germany, the UK, and India. Africa needs its own vaccine manufacturing infrastructure to prioritise its population needs. It is imperative that the governments of the world remove their objections to IP waivers, to export restrictions, and actively facilitate the production of vaccines in places where they are needed. The pathway to vaccine equity is if we can develop and manufacture our own.”

structure to prioritise its population needs. It is imperative that the governments of the world remove their objections to IP waivers, to export restrictions, and actively facilitate the production of vaccines in places where they are needed. The pathway to vaccine equity is if we can develop and manufacture our own.” Alakija sees access to COVID-19 diagnostics and treatment tools being the next frontier in the fight against inequity in the pandemic, noting that some COVID-19 antiviral treatments ”require a test within 5 days of infection, so in order for them to be remotely effective, you need to have access to tests. In the whole of Nigeria, less than 4 million [PCR] tests have been undertaken since the pandemic began. You may as well say these treatments are for rich countries only”, she says. “This happened with HIV/AIDS, and we are simply repeating history”, she notes, recalling the disparities in access to antiretrovirals. In her WHO role, Alakija is in the early phase of listening and identifying needs. But her focus on global equity and justice will guide her work. “My main priority is to ensure that our lives are valued equally in this pandemic and going forward. We can do that by starting with equitable access to COVID-19 tools. If we can achieve equitable access for COVID-19 tools to end the acute phase of the pandemic, then hopefully the processes and systems we establish will help us be better prepared for the next outbreak, so we all have a better chance of survival, not just the privileged people in high-income countries of the world, but the entire world.”