Nonprofit organisation the Solidarity Fund has shifted its focus to Covid-19 vaccines as “the year has seen a lot of devastation”, CEO Tandi Nzimande said during a media briefing on March 25.

However, while she was grateful that the fund had "been able to be part of the solution”, she emphasised that “every South African has a role to play to speed up the end of the pandemic”.

The fund was established by President Cyril Ramaphosa in March 2020 as a rapid response vehicle through which pooled contributions could be deployed to fund impactful initiatives and to help the government tackle the Covid-19 crisis. The fund has, since its establishment, allocated R2.7-billion of the R3.2-billion it received in pledges and allocated these funds towards health, humanitarian relief and behavioural change interventions.

Of the R2.7-billion, R2.1-billion has been disbursed.

However, as South Africa prepares for the mass vaccine rollout programme, the fund is launching a targeted fundraising effort in support of the national rollout and is, despite being more passive, receiving donations from a variety of donors, with donations received having grown by R146-million in the last six months, said Nzimande.

This was largely attributed to the UK's donation of R81-million.

The fund expects to continue receiving about R1-million monthly into the account, over and above the targeted fundraising drive in support of the National Vaccine Rollout Programme.

The arrival of Covid-19 vaccines has shifted the fund’s focus back to health, and away from its humanitarian that bolster the resources of those in need of food and gender-based violence relief.

In this regard, the fund indicated on Thursday that it had been working closely with the national Department of Health (DoH) to ascertain where it could contribute to the programme. The fund’s work on the vaccination programme began when it was approached by the DoH to catalyse the country’s entry into Covax with the upfront payment of R283-million.

Following that, on February 11, the fund received a request from the DoH director-general to contribute R50-million towards an implementation study on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, to be conducted by the South African Medical Research Council.

In supporting this, the fund joins other donors, including the DoH, who have contributed to the overall budget of just over R300-million. Johnson & Johnson is donating the vaccines, valued at R75-million.

Nzimande, however, emphasised that the fund’s contribution would “not be used to fund the procurement of the vaccines or any of the research related costs of this project” but, rather, to co-fund the operational requirements related to implementing and executing the vaccination of frontline healthcare workers".

In this regard, the fund said on Thursday, in response to questions posed by media, that it was considering spending R69-million on technical support for its Covid-19 vaccine rollout contribution.

In recognising the need to mobilise support from a variety of stakeholders for the national vaccine roll-out to be successful, the DoH had made a request to a consortium of donors to fund technical assistance to the national and provincial health departments and related human resource capacitation for the implementation of an effective nationwide Covid-19 vaccination roll-out.

The fund is, as a result, currently in advanced discussions to contribute to this united effort and continues to prioritise Covid-19 preventive behaviour messaging and communication.

The fund also launched its Easter messaging campaign, on March 21, which is focused on reminding South Africans about the preventive behaviours they “should continue to follow at a time typically characterised by increased domestic travel, gatherings and spending time with family and friends”.