March 9, 2021
Today, on the People’s Vaccine Global Day of Action, we mark a year since we as a global family have been confronted with the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Together, humanity has shared in the collective trauma of managing an unfathomable magnitude of sickness and death in our midst.
- Together, in every corner of the globe, courageous frontline healthcare workers have given blood, sweat and tears to manage the onslaught of this virus.
- Together, we have navigated the shifts to a virtual world and the disruption of livelihoods and ways of living that has brought about, as well as new demands of home life that required us to care for each other, educate our children and connect with loved ones in ways previously unimagined.
- Together, we have applied the best of our medical and scientific minds, as well as all facets of our public health infrastructure to produce lifesaving vaccines at unprecedented speed and scale. Top notch experts and brave ordinary citizens alike are standing shoulder to shoulder in this fight as clinical trials are running from townships in South Africa and communities in Brazil to laboratories in Belgium and India. You see, we are all in the battlefield together.
Yet!
We are beginning to see dangerous, evil cracks surface in our unity and the divides of socio-economic inequalities becoming even more stark. The economic and social disruption caused by the pandemic continues to be devastating: hundreds of millions of people are at risk of falling into extreme poverty, while the number of undernourished people, currently estimated at nearly 690 million, could increase by up to 132 million by the end of the year[i]. UNESCO has laid bare the horrific statistic that some 1.52 billion students are out of school worldwide and that almost 10 million children may never return to school following COVID-19 lockdown[ii].
No one has been left unscathed. And therefore no one should be left without immunity to the virus, and the gift of resilience that the vaccine brings along with it. It is for this very reason that the vaccine is a human right for all. Vaccine equity is not just a public health concern, it is an issue of social justice and a matter of our collective survival.
Nobody will be protected against COVID-19 until everybody is. There will be no economic or social recovery for anyone, in any country, unless we prioritize an equal global health recovery.
Human lives are equal in value no matter the geographic lottery of birthplace. Everyone, I repeat—everyone! Every single human being no matter where they live in the world— needs and deserves access to life-saving vaccines.
Vaccine nationalism is a moral catastrophe. History will judge us harshly should we not marshall every resource at our disposal and stretch the bounds of our imaginations to make sure we get vaccines in the arms of those who need it from Maputo to Mexico City to Mumbai.
Together, we need to continue reimaging our ways of being:
- A waiver from WTO on intellectual property protection for COVID-related medical products is imperative.
- Pharmaceutical Companies must understand that vaccines are a common good and not a commodity for their profit alone. I urge them to listen to the world clamoring for not-for-profit pricing of vaccine doses and other COVID-19 tools for the duration of the pandemic.
- We cannot operate as business as usual. We have to normalize unusual business practices — increase manufacturing capacity, share IP and license vaccines to other companies to maximize supply.
- Governments, private sector, multilaterals and philanthropists need to come together with increased solidarity and increase financing for COVAX.
- And COVAX must provide timely and transparent information to recipient countries on pricing as well as expected supply and delivery schedules.
A moral catastrophe should not be allowed to happen. We must act with collective responsibility and solidarity as a human family to ensure each one of us is able to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Dare not let us be the ones to deny ourselves and generations to come the dignity of sound health and life, and victory over COVID-19.
I thank you.
[i] https://www.who.int/news/item/13-10-2020-impact-of-covid-19-on-people’s-livelihoods-their-health-and-our-food-systems#:~:text=The%20economic%20and%20social%20disruption,the%20end%20of%20the%20year.
[ii] https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse/globalcoalition
The Trust supports and mobilises civil society networks on issues of ending child marriage, ending violence against children, ending female genital mutilation and promoting children’s rights, to carry out advocacy and action across Africa. Special focus is placed on Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia where child marriage continues to be a problem largely driven by poverty, gender inequality, harmful traditional practices, conflict, low levels of literacy, limited opportunities for girls and weak or non-existent protective and preventive legal frameworks.
Education is a fundamental right for all children, which is also a vehicle for social, economic and political transformation in communities, countries and the African continent at large. Recent studies indicate a lack of progress in some of the critical commitments aimed at improving education quality, access, retention and achievement, particularly for girls. In most African countries, girls may face barriers to learning, especially when they reach post-primary levels of education. By implementing multi-dimensional approaches to education which includes core education, personal development, life skills and economic competencies, the Trust partners with funding partners, governments, civil societies and the private sector to improve education access.
The Nutrition and Reproductive, Maternal, New-born, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition, (RMNCAH+N) of the Children’s Rights and Development Programme aims at promoting the Global Strategy for women, children and adolescents’ health within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda. The strategy emphasises on the importance of effective country leadership as a common factor across countries making progress in improving the health of women, children and adolescents.
Through its Early Childhood Development (ECD) plan, The Trust will seek to put into action the new science and evidence Report that was presented by Lancet Series on Good and early development – the right of every child. This will be achieved by mobilising like-minded partners to contribute in the new science and evidence to reach all young children with ECD. The Trust’s goal is to be a catalyst for doing things differently, in particular, to rid fragmentation and lack of coordination across ECD sectors. In response to evidence showing the importance of political will in turning the tide against the current poor access and quality of ECD. Even before conception, starting with a mother’s health and social economic conditions, the early years of a child’s life form a fundamental foundation that determines whether a child will survive and thrive optimally.