Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) and Third World Network (TWN) are facilitating the Feminists for a People’s Vaccine Campaign (FPV) for equitable, accessible, and affordable COVID-19 vaccines, drugs, therapeutics, and equipment—Access to Medicines or A2M for short.
The Campaign includes global, regional, and national groups from across Sub-Saharan Africa and MENA, Latin America, the Caribbean, East, South-East, and South Asia, the Pacific and other allies that are challenging the Intellectual Property regime and how it detrimentally affects the South through advocacy, knowledge production, communications and campaigning at different decision-making forums.
An evolving set of resources combines intersectional feminist analysis with salient information on the latest developments on key issues: Issue Papers, Reports, Newsletters, Podcasts, Cartoons, Explainer Videos and ‘DAWNTalks’ (an online discussion series).
Advocacy
The campaign has been engaging with the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) to bring to its attention the disproportionate gendered effects of the pandemic and inequitable access to medicines.
Our strategy has been to target global North countries on their active role on inequitable access to COVID-19 tools and how this affects women through their opposition to the waiver of intellectual property rules tabled at the WTO and co-sponsored by 65 countries.
The Podcast
The campaign is producing a series of interviews with experts from academia and activism dedicated to exploring the unequal impacts of the pandemic across the globe, and the political economy governing COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics distribution.
Issue Papers
The campaign produces Issue Papers on a variety of topics directed at the feminist activist audience to explain the crucial aspects of the access to medicines political landscape, such as key multilateral actors and critical perspectives from the South.
Regional Papers
In 2024, the Feminist for a People’s Vaccine (FPV) held three regional workshops in Cape Town (South Africa), Ciudad de Mexico (Mexico), and Bangkok (Thailand). These workshops focused on learning lessons from the pandemic in Africa, Latin America, and Asia and the Pacific.
Feminist scholars, advocates, and activists gathered to discuss crucial issues such as the negative impact of power imbalances between the global North and South, the detrimental outcomes of Intellectual Property Regimes on public health policy, the severe austerity measures imposed by the International Monetary Fund, the rise in economic inequality and the intersections of the digitalization of health with data privacy and healthcare access and what must change for a just future.
In addition to these discussions, feminist scholars and activists produced research papers analyzing the specific impacts of COVID-19 in their respective regions and countries. Commissioned by DAWN, these studies provide in-depth examinations of how the pandemic exacerbated existing inequalities, shaped public health responses, and influenced economic and social policies. The findings highlight the urgent need for feminist approaches to global health governance, economic justice, and equitable access to medicines and vaccines.
Cartoons
The campaign uses cartoons and videos to produce information on A2M in a way that illustrates hard concepts and analysis to a wider audience.
PROJECT LEADS
Vanita Mukherjee
Kumudini Samuel
CORRESPONDING ASSOCIATE
Ana Santos (2024)
Tejaswini Vavilala (2024)
Rajnia Rodrigues (2021-2023)
Shree Baphna (2020-2023)
Helo D’Angelo (2021-2025)