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The President of the African Development Bank, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has called for vaccine justice for Africa. Speaking at the launch of the Bank’s Africa Economic Outlook 2021 report on Friday, Adesina denounced the lack of Covid-19 vaccines reaching Africa.
“We need global solidarity and vaccine justice for Africa,” said the head of Africa’s leading development bank.
Adesina highlighted the marked disparities between vaccine procurements by several rich countries that have acquired enough vaccines to inoculate their populations twice, and African countries, which remain primarily dependent on the World Health Organization’s COVAX initiative. for the tiny amounts of vaccine acquired so far.
Speaking on CNN’s first move with Julia Chatterley on Friday, Adesina said: “So far 14.6 million vaccines have been delivered in Africa, but many people still cannot get their vaccines in their arms. .
“It’s only 1% of what we need. We’re nowhere near 60% of herd immunity, and unfortunately I don’t see that happening for another year or two at this rate – not unless things change.
According to Adesina, “So we need to improve Africa’s access to vaccines. COVAX is doing a great job, but we still need more. We need it in sufficient quantity. We need it fast, and we need it affordably. “
The acquisition of vaccines has important implications for African countries. As Adesina pointed out during a wider discussion with panelists at the launch of Africa Economic Outlook 2021 – including Professor Joseph E. Stiglitz, 2001 Nobel Laureate in Economics – for Africa, l quick acquisition of vaccines is a matter of life and death. . As elsewhere, Africa’s first priority is to prolong life and preserve jobs.
From an economic standpoint, Stiglitz agreed with Adesina that the slow pace of acquiring vaccines and stopping the pandemic will make it difficult to tackle extreme poverty and negative economic growth. They agreed that a comprehensive global plan was needed to help countries cope with growing indebtedness, which the pandemic had exacerbated.
The African economy is expected to grow 3.1% in 2021. However, 39 million Africans could be pushed into extreme poverty this year due to the pandemic, unless the international community takes the kind of action. that Stiglitz and Adesina are now calling for.
The head of the African Development Bank said: “As long as Africans are not vaccinated, the world will come back to square one”. He said no amount of “vaccine passports” advocated by some developed countries could change that fact.
“Africa needs to develop its pharmaceutical industry and start manufacturing. The African Development Bank will help African countries to do this, ”Adesina said.
Supporting this position, Stiglitz said in his conversation with Adesina: “One of the things some of us have campaigned for is the suspension of intellectual property rights related to Covid-19 due to the supply constraint. that you describe is at least, to some extent, artificial… If access to intellectual property rights were more extensive, there is in all emerging markets and developing countries a considerable capacity to produce much more vaccines. “
He added that it was in the interests of even advanced countries to ensure that everyone had access to the vaccine and other related drugs. “The longer the disease spreads in any part of the world, it can mutate and one of the things we know is that these mutations will not respect borders. The Covid-19 virus does not carry a passport. “
Other notable African voices that have called for accelerating vaccine delivery to Africa include South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Director of the African Centers for the Control and Prevention of diseases, Dr. John Nkengasong.
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