KazPost

Kazakhstan News
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Gordon Brown leads calls for $60bn of Covid support for poor countries

Gordon Brown leads calls for $60bn of Covid support for poor countries

Former PM urges G7 leaders to help finance rapid immunisation programme to stem spread of virus

A whirlwind six-week campaign to persuade the UK-hosted G7 summit to fund a $60bn two-year vaccine and healthcare support package for poor countries is being spearheaded by the former prime minister Gordon Brown.

In a campaign backed by the Guardian, leaders of the west’s leading economies are being urged to invest a fraction of the sums spent fighting Covid-19 domestically to help finance rapid immunisation programmes and the wider health response to the virus in less well-off countries, to check the virus’s global spread.

“We have got to take action to get money into poor countries,” Brown said. “Nobody is safe until everybody is safe. The only way to get the guaranteed financing for health is to get some burden sharing. It is not good enough to have a glorified whip-round.”

Brown is one of a number of global figures behind the campaign, who include Graça Machel, the advocate for women and children’s rights, and Winnie Byanyima, the director of UNAids.

The former prime minister said the crisis in India demonstrated the futility of rich countries trying to insulate themselves from the pandemic, and more generous funding of the global immunisation programme would pay off many times over.


Even the most heavily vaccinated countries remain vulnerable to new coronavirus variants, which are likely to emerge where infection rates are highest and will probably be spread as global travel resumes. Variants first identified in Brazil and South Africa are thought to have some potential resistance to existing vaccines.

Global health is a key item on the agenda when the G7 – comprising the UK, US, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Japan – meets in Cornwall in mid-June. Brown said the summit should commit to ensuring poor countries were vaccinated and supported to get access to vital therapeutic and diagnostic equipment. He also wants the G7 to use its financial muscle at the World Bank and the IMF to finance wider support for health workers and hospitals in poor countries.

A meeting of officials from G7 countries is taking place on 10 May, when it will become clearer whether the summit will deliver on a global pandemic plan.

Campaign groups and aid charities are being mobilised through an umbrella group of climate, development and environment agencies – Crack the Crises – in the hope of repeating the gains of Make Poverty History, which successfully lobbied the Gleneagles G8 summit in 2005 for debt relief and a doubling of aid.

Jamie Drummond, the co-founder of the campaign group One and a driving force behind Crack the Crisis, said: “At this G7 our prime minster [Boris Johnson] can and must channel any Churchillian instincts he aspires to have, rise to the history of the moment and get agreed a clear global roadmap for vaccines coverage victory, with the G7 countries paying their fair share, sharing excess doses and sharing rights to scale vaccine production sustainably.

“This isn’t simply morally right. Economists and epidemiologists concur that frontloading the finance to deliver global vaccines coverage is the smartest investment ever on offer – saving tens of trillions of pounds, millions of lives and years of misery and uncertainty for citizens in the UK and the world over.”

Vaccination rates vary enormously around the world. In high-income countries, one in four people have been vaccinated compared with one in 500 in low-income countries. In the UK and the US, more than half the population has had at least one dose. Fewer than 10% of people in India have had a jab. Many frontline health workers globally have not had a single shot.

Some G7 countries including the UK, US and Germany have contributed to Covax – the global initiative aimed at equitable access to Covid vaccines – but Brown said there was still a funding shortfall.
Estimates suggest a two-year programme to provide jabs, testing kits and oxygen, and improve healthcare delivery, would cost more than $80bn over two years, of which $19bn has so far been provided by donor countries.

Lobbying of G7 leaders is expected to intensify over coming weeks, with an international petition demanding action already signed by 1.5 million people.

Under a formula for burden sharing, 89 rich and middle-income countries would be asked to make a financial contribution. The G7 – which accounts for more than half of global output – is being urged to show a lead to the broader G20 group of countries. Brown said if the G20 weighed in behind the plan, almost 90% of the necessary investment would be covered.

Britain, which borrowed £300bn in the past year to fund the cost of Covid, would need to find about $3bn under the formula – less than the Treasury has saved by reducing the aid budget from 0.7% to 0.5% of national income last year. Brown said that what the G7 “spent in billions it would gain in trillions”.

Kevin Watkins, the director of Save the Children, said: “The ethics, economics, and epidemiology all point to the urgency of the G7 stepping up … G7 leaders have been talking the talk on international solidarity in the face of Covid-19; they now need to walk the financial walk.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

KazPost
0:00
0:00
Close
It's always the people with the dirty hands pointing their fingers
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
Europe is boiling: Extreme Weather Conditions Prevail Across the Continent
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
Historic Moment: Edgars Rinkevics, EU's First Openly Gay Head of State, Takes Office as Latvia's President
An Ominous Shift in Warfare: Western Powers Risk War Crimes and Violate International Norms with Cluster Bomb Supply to Ukraine
Bye bye democracy, human rights, freedom: French Cops Can Now Secretly Activate Phone Cameras, Microphones And GPS To Spy On Citizens
The Poor Man With Money, Mark Zuckerberg, Unveils Twitter Replica with Heavy-Handed Censorship: A New Low in Innovation?
The Double-Edged Sword of AI: AI is linked to layoffs in industry that created it
US Sanctions on China's Chip Industry Backfire, Prompting Self-Inflicted Blowback
Meta Copy Twitter with New App, Threads
The New French Revolution
BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Application Refiled, Naming Coinbase as ‘Surveillance-Sharing’ Partner
Corruption in the European Parliament - Business as usual
UK Crypto and Stablecoin Regulations Become Law as Royal Assent is Granted
Paris Suburb Grapples with Violence as Curfew Imposed: Saint-Denis Residents Express Dismay and Anger
A Delaware city wants to let businesses vote in its elections
Alef Aeronautics Achieves Historic Milestone with Flight Certification for World's First Flying Car
Google Blocked Access to Canadian News in Response to New Legislation
French Politicians Advocate for Pan-European Regulation on Social Media Influencers
×