A Study on the Key Elements of Bangladesh’s Vaccine Diplomacy During COVID-19

Abstract

In May 2022, Bangladesh was ranked fifth in a Global Index comprising of 121 countries’ performance of managing the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic. The Index provided Bangladesh with global recognition of its endeavours that aimed at lowering the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases since the mid-2020, in which the country’s vaccine diplomacy played a greater role. In view of that the present study identified the key elements of Bangladesh’s vaccine diplomacy in the context of the pandemic. The study employed the qualitative approach of the social science research, while the data were generated from both primary and secondary sources. The study found that Bangladesh pursued a proactive vaccine diplomacy with a combination of five key elements: identifying the critical areas of intervention, figuring out the volume of internal demand, counting on multiple sources of vaccines, generating diverse source of external funding and making the most use of ‘soft power’ strategy.