Your Excellency President Cyril Ramaphosa,
Your Excellency Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre,
Let me begin by welcoming the new members of the Facilitation Council: Cameroon, Egypt, Malawi, Nigeria, Pakistan and Uganda.
Your voice is essential as we focus on addressing the inequality in access to COVID-19 tools.
I would also like to welcome the three new members from regional cooperation groups:
Cambodia, which will soon be the Chair of ASEAN;
Senegal, as the incoming Chair of the African Union;
And Kuwait, as the new Chair of the League of Arab States.
Kuwait has generously supported the ACT Accelerator from the start, especially the COVAX facility and the WHO coordination hub.
Each of your countries has an important role to play representing your regional constituencies.
Today you will consider two essential issues:
First, accelerating progress to address COVID-19 equity gaps;
And second, funding the ACT Accelerator’s new strategic plan.
As you know, our global targets are to support all countries to vaccinate 40% of their populations by the end of this year and 70% by the middle of next year;
to achieve testing rates of 100 per 100 000 people;
and to ensure that all those who need it have access to medical oxygen, treatments and PPE.
But we are not on track for any of these targets.
Yesterday marked one year since the first COVID-19 vaccines were administered.
We all believed and hoped that a year later, we would be nearing the end of the pandemic.
Instead, the death toll has more than tripled, and the world remains in its grip.
Despite our best efforts, in the year since the start of the global vaccination campaign, low- and lower-middle income countries have been left behind.
Without visibility on supply, countries, COVAX and AVAT simply cannot plan properly. We are making it twice as hard for these countries.
The recent emergence of the Omicron variant highlights our perilous situation.
The development of new therapeutics could make a substantial difference in preventing severe COVID-19.
But we cannot – we must not – allow the same inequitable access to these new tools that has deprived millions of people of vaccines.
As you know, last month, we released the new plan and budget for the ACT Accelerator, with an ask of 23.4 billion U.S. dollars to meet our global targets and deliver the tools countries need over the next 12 months.
Today WHO published its ACT Accelerator Appeal for 1.57 billion U.S. dollars.
Fully funding the ACT Accelerator, including WHO’s component, is a global health security imperative.
Early next year, President Biden will once again gather world leaders for a global COVID-19 Summit, focused on reaching the 70% vaccination target.
Today, about 40% of the world’s population is fully vaccinated, but in low-income countries, that figure is just 3%, Africa being the most disadvantaged.
Next year’s Leaders’ Summit will be a crucial moment for all of us in reaching our goal.
We will need to see firm pledges to the ACT Accelerator budget, if these inequities are to be addressed.
Colleagues, over 5 million lives have been lost to COVID-19 – the equivalent of a city the size of Chittagong, Melbourne or Addis Ababa.
How many more lives we lose depends on how quickly we can ensure equitable access to vaccines, tests and treatments globally.
It is now my great pleasure to hand the floor to the Co-Chair of the Facilitation Council, His Excellency President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Your Excellency, thank you so much for joining today, thank you for your leadership both continentally and globally, and you have the floor.
[H.E. PRESIDENT RAMAPHOSA SPOKE]
Thank you, Your Excellency.
Thank you also for the transparency South Africa has shown, and for leading the way, but we’re also disappointed that many countries imposed many blanket travel bans.
Transparency should be rewarded, not penalized. And we’re also concerned that other countries may be discouraged to be transparent for the future. It has an impact. So we’re very, very concerned.
But at the same time, we’re happy to see that Switzerland and France have reversed their decision, and I hope others will follow.
Thank you so much for your leadership, and we’re glad that you have shown the way, and I hope the world will understand and move in the same direction, and uphold the principle of transparency that will help us to defeat this pandemic. Thank you again for your continental and global leadership.
It’s now my honour to hand the floor to His Excellency Prime Minister Støre of Norway. Prime Minister, you have the floor.
[H.E. PRIME MINISTER STØRE SPOKE]
Thank you so much, Prime Minister Støre. Tusen takk for your leadership and support for the ACT Accelerator.