DEVELOPING AND DEPLOYING ADVOCACY STRATEGIES TO PROMOTE COVID-19 DIAGNOSTIC TESTING AND LINKAGE TO CARE AND TREATMENT IN LOW- AND MIDDLE INCOME COUNTRIES (LMICS)
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator is a ground-breaking global collaboration to accelerate
the development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines. It was
set up in response to a call from G20 leaders in March and launched in April 2020 by the World Health
Organization (WHO), the European Commission, France and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The
ACT-Accelerator is a multistakeholder collaboration of public, private sector, philanthropic, and public–
private actors, as well as civil society and community-based organizations. The ACT-Accelerator is
divided into four pillars: diagnostics, therapeutics, vaccines and the health systems and response
connector. The ACT-Accelerator Diagnostics Pillar is co-convened by FIND and the Global Fund and the
Therapeutics Pillar is co-convened by Unitaid and the Wellcome Trust.