World Health Organization (WHO) response to the External Evaluation of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A)
The World Health Organization appreciates the broad range of views on the ACT-Accelerator (ACT-A) setup, operations and results that are captured in the External Evaluation, which was commissioned by the ACT-A Facilitation Council. Of particular value in this report are the perspectives expressed by a number of countries in Africa, South America and Asia that used ACT-A processes and services during the pandemic, but whose voices have not always been heard in such reviews.
While acknowledging the limitations that have been cited by the authors and other commentators, this report does provide important perspectives that add to the growing number of evaluations, reports, reviews and recommendations that aim to inform the establishment of a stronger countermeasures platform. Collectively, this work will help shape efforts to build on the experience of ACT-A and other instruments and initiatives (e.g., the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (PIP) Framework, the ‘100 Day Mission’) to ensure the world can rely on a more robust platform for accelerating the development, and equitable allocation and delivery of countermeasures in future pandemics.
