Oxfam Calls For Urgent G20 Action On Vaccine Inequality, Climate Change, Economic Recovery

New Delhi: Oxfam has called on G20 leaders to take urgent action to dramatically scale-up manufacturing and access to Covid vaccines around the world, promote a fair economic recovery, fight hunger and help the poorest countries adapt to climate change. The 2021 G20 Summit is scheduled to take place in Rome, Italy on October 30-31. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also scheduled to visit the two-day summit. In a statement, Oxfam said leaders at the G20 Summit must tackle the unforgivable scandal of vaccine inequality and systemic mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has sparked an unprecedented wealth grab.

Also Read: Nation Did Its Duty: PM Modi On 1 Billion Covid Vaccination Milestone

Rich countries originally promised that any successful vaccine would be a global public good and pledged 1.8 billion doses to developing countries. A year later, they have delivered just 261 million (14 per cent). While their own vaccination rates are high, at 63 per cent, just 1.8 per cent of people living in poorer parts of the world have been fully vaccinated,” the statement said.

G20 leaders must take urgent action to dramatically scale-up manufacturing and access to Covid vaccines around the world, promote a fair economic recovery, fight hunger, lower dangerous greenhouse gas emissions, and help the poorest countries adapt to the climate change already happening, it said.

Also Read: Explainer: What Is COP26 And Why Is It So Important For Tackling Climate Change Crisis?

Meeting in Rome at such a time of public health and economic turmoil amid a worsening climate crisis, G20 leaders have a choice –either take urgent action against COVID-19, hunger, and climate change, or continue doing what they have been doing, talking some of the talk but walking none of the walk,” said Oxfam’s Senior Advisor Jorn Kalinski.

Rather than supporting common-sense proposals by India and South Africa for trading nations to waive the intellectual property rights and patents on vaccine technology in order to increase production and lower vaccine costs for all, rich countries have instead hoarded more vaccine doses than they need and supported the big pharmaceutical companies to retain all of the vaccine science and know-how, Oxfam said.

Also Read: Don’t Choose Extinction,’ In Viral Video Dinosaur Urges World Leaders At The UN General Assembly Podium

None of us are safe from coronavirus until all of us are safe, but rich countries and pharmaceutical corporations have instead created a vaccine apartheid,” said Mr Kalinski. “In Rome, G20 leaders must put aside their differences and start the process to share the rights and the technology to vaccines, and scaling-up manufacturing around the world to ensure everyone has access to them,” he added.

The G20 is a leading global forum that brings together the world’s major economies. Its members account for over 80 per cent of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 75 per cent of global trade and 60 per cent of the population of the planet.

Also Read: Climate Change Is For Real, Here’s Why We Need To Limit Global Warming And Act Now

NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity,  that is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.