By Michael Olugbode
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has lamented that inequality in the availability of COVID-19 vaccine was hindering the global economy’s growth.
Commenting on recent analysis that showed that G20 countries had received 15 times more COVID-19 vaccine doses per capita than countries in Africa, UNICEF’s Executive Director, Henrietta Fore, was quoted in a statement to have explained:
“Vaccine inequity is not just holding the poorest countries back – it is holding the world back.”
Speaking ahead of the G20 Leaders’ summit this weekend, Fore said: “As leaders meet to set priorities for the next phase of the COVID-19 response, it is vital they remember that, in the COVID vaccine race, we either win together, or we lose together.”
Ahead of the summit, 48 UNICEF Africa ambassadors and supporters have also united, calling on countries to deliver doses by December.
The analysis, conducted by science analytics company, Airfinity, exposed the severity of vaccine inequity between high-income and low-income countries, especially in Africa.
It found that doses delivered to G20 countries per capita were 15 times higher than doses delivered per capita to sub-Saharan African countries; 15 times higher than doses delivered per capita to low-income countries; and three times higher than doses delivered per capita in all other countries combined.
The statement noted that wealthy countries with more supplies than they need have generously pledged to donate these doses to low- and middle-income countries via COVAX but these promised doses are moving too slowly, insisting that of the 1.3 billion additional doses countries have pledged to donate, only 194 million doses have been provided to COVAX.
It lamented that African countries particularly have largely been left without access to COVID-19 vaccines, with less than five per cent of the African population fully vaccinated, leaving many countries at high-risk of further outbreaks.
The statement added: “As leaders prepare to meet for the G20 Summit in Rome this weekend, 48 UNICEF Africa ambassadors and supporters from across the continent have united in an open letter, calling for leaders to honour their promises to urgently deliver doses, writing that “the stakes could not be higher.”
The letter’s signatories, including Angelique Kidjo, Arlo Parks, Davido, Tendai Mtawarira, Femi Kuti, Tony Elumelu, Ramla Ali, Kate Henshaw, Winnie Byanyima and others, called on leaders to donate the pledged vaccines by December, along with the necessary resources to turn the vaccines into vaccinations.
It added: “Every day Africa remains unprotected, pressure builds on fragile health systems where there can be one midwife for hundreds of mothers and babies.
“As the pandemic causes a spike in child malnutrition, resources are diverted from life-saving health services and childhood immunisation. Children already orphaned risk losing grandparents.
“Disaster looms for sub-Saharan African families, four out of five of whom rely on the informal sector for their daily bread. Poverty threatens children’s return to school, protection from violence and child marriage.”
