Of the world’s 194

[Pages:11]Dear Prime Minister Draghi,

We congratulate you on your preparations for the G20 summit on October 30th. We wish to bring to your attention the issue of inequitable COVID-19 vaccine distribution plaguing our planet, and to ask you to consider the G20 meeting as an opportunity to address this inequitable distribution.

Over six billion doses have been administered worldwide, but seventy per cent of these doses were administered by only a few countries of the world's 194 countries, and only two per cent of people in low-income countries have received a vaccine dose.

Vaccines can play a major role in ending the pandemic, but only if they are available to all, and only if we collaborate with one another as no one is safe until we are all safe.

We believe that vaccine inequality can be ended, and that high-level action by G20 will help immensely to do that. By the end of the year, because of overordering and stockpiling, the G7 nations will be sitting on a large vaccine stockpile of unused doses that will be surplus to their requirements. Meanwhile, only five per cent of Africa is fully vaccinated. Similar challenges exist in large parts of Asia and Latin America. In order to reach the sixty to seventy per cent vaccination levels of high-income countries, the target set by the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) by June next year, 5 billion more vaccines are needed rapidly, including 1.6 billion additional vaccines in Africa. Achieving this goal is within the world's reach, should high-income countries decide to share their surplus doses immediately.

A detailed plan is needed to redistribute available vaccines and switch delivery contracts from countries that have overordered to COVAX, the international bulk-purchasing agency aimed at equitable access to vaccines globally. We urge you to press this on the G20 when its finance ministers meet in Rome on October 29th and its leaders meet there on October 30th.

We believe that the plan we outline below that builds on the global vaccines summit convened by President Biden in September can bring immediate relief to the poorest countries.

First, our evidence shows that four polities ? USA, EU, UK, and Canada ? will be stocking by the end of this month 240 million unused vaccines. With a concrete plan agreed by the G7 countries and endorsed by the G20, and with the help of the militaries in these countries, these could be airlifted immediately to the countries most in need. Let us stress that these are unused vaccines even after we take account of the deployment of boosters and the vaccination of 12-15 year-olds in the west, and they come on top of the donations that have already been agreed.

Second, another 212 million vaccines can be transferred by the end of November.

Third, a further airlift can be agreed for December of 150 million vaccines, with 280 million more in January and 245 million in February - adding up to a transfer of vaccines and delivery contracts for vaccines totalling 1.1 billion in the next four months.

These doses would help Africa and low-income countries achieve the currently unattainable WHO vaccination targets of forty per cent by the end of the year, or very soon thereafter.

Fourth, the World Bank should make available additional finance immediately to build the capacity needed to administer vaccines quickly and effectively in not only the urban but also the rural areas of low-income countries.

We believe that if all this is agreed, we can meet what the WHO has said is a spring date in 2022 for seventy per cent of all adults to be vaccinated.

We call your attention to what will happen if vaccines are not airlifted to countries in need. Without a detailed plan, 100 million vaccine doses will have passed their use-by date at the end of the year. If we do not act quickly, that figure could exceed 200 million by the end of January 2022.

It would be unethical for all these vaccines to be wasted when globally there are 7,000 deaths from COVID-19 every day, many of which could be averted.

The information from a UK survey is that for the deployment of less than 100 million vaccines, 120,000 lives have already been saved, illustrating the benefits of a mass vaccination campaign in countries where a fourth wave of Covid is happening and escalating numbers of lives are in danger of being lost.

We are in touch with the African Centre for Disease Control (CDC) to assess their needs and the shortfall in vaccine supply. They say that they are still recovering from a long and hard third wave that claimed the lives of 80,000

people since the start of August. Unfortunately, the rate at which lives are being lost is increasing and not decreasing. With each new wave being worse than the previous wave, many experts fear that things will worsen when the impending fourth wave arrives unless vaccines are swiftly provided.

Vaccine inequality also constitutes a threat to us all. In the same logic that you cannot put out half a fire and be safe from the fire, we are all not safe until everyone is safe. Without urgent and widespread vaccination, variants will continue to arise in unvaccinated regions, and may well spread from there to challenge the vaccine protection achieved hitherto in more vaccinated countries.

As you know, the probability of death increases with increasing poverty. It is estimated that the failure to deliver vaccines to low-income countries will cost the world $5.3 trillion. Low-income countries will bear the brunt of these costs, as they will struggle to recover from the pandemic in the absence of access to vaccines.

When the G20 convenes in Rome, we hope that they will agree that the poorest and the most vulnerable can finally have access to the miracle of lifesaving vaccines.

With best wishes

List of Signatories

First Name Philippe Mar?a Elena Esko Rashid Farida Abdulaziz M Hamid Inger Shaukat Jan Peter Ki-moon Barbara Kaushik Erik Suman Ana Patrick Kjell Magne Thomas Wided Dumitri

Last name

Position

Aghion

Professor of Economics, Coll?ge de France & LSE

Ag?ero

Secretary General of Club de Madrid?

Aho

Prime Minister of Finland 1991-1995?

Alimov

Secretary-General Shanghai Cooperation Organization 2016-2019, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan 1992-1994?

Allaghi

former Ambassador of Libya to EU?

Altwaijri

former Director General of ISESCO?

Ansari

Vice President of India 2007-2017?

Ashing

CEO of Save the Children International

Aziz

Prime Minister of Pakistan 2004-2007?

Balkenende Prime Minister of The Netherlands 2002-2010?

Ban

Secretary General of the United Nations 2007-2016?

Barrett

USA Secretary of the Air Force 2019-2021?

Basu

President of the International Economic Association; Chief Economist of the World Bank (2012-2016)

Berklof

EBRD Chief Economist (2006-2015); Professor of Economics, LSE

Bery

Chief Economist at Royal Dutch Shell (2012-2016); Director-General of the National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi

Birchall

deputy Prime Minister of Romania 2018-2019?

Bolton

Professor of Finance and Economics, Imperial College London; Professor, Columbia University

Bondevik

Prime Minister of Norway 1997-2000; 2001-2005?

Boni Yayi

President of the Republic of Benin 2006-2016; former President of the African Union 2012-2013

Bouchamaoui Nobel Peace Prize 2015?

Bragish

Prime Minister of Moldova 1999-2001?

Lakhdar

Brahimi

Algeria Foreign Minister 1991-1993?

Gordon

Brown

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 2007-2010

John

Bruton

Ireland Prime Minister 1994-1997?

Robin

Burgess

Professor of Economics, LSE

Micheline

Calmy-Rey

President of Switzerland 2007 and 2011?

Fernando Henrique

Cardoso

President of Brazil 1995-2003?

Wendy

Carlin

Professor of Economics, University College London

Hikmet

Cetin

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey 1991-1994?

Lynda

Chalker

UK Minister for Overseas Development 1989-1997?

Laura

Chinchilla

President of Costa Rica 2010-2014?

Joachim

Chissano

President of Mozambique 1986-2005?

Bai

Chong-en

Dean, Tsinghua School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University

Helen

Clark

Prime Minister of New Zealand 1999-2008??

Joe

Clark

Canada Prime Minister 1979-1980?

Sean

Cleary

Chairman, Strategic Concepts (Pty) Ltd; Advisor of Club de Madrid?

Emil

Constantinescu President of Romania 1996-2000?

Diane

Coyle

Co-Director of the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, University of Cambridge

Chester

Crocker

USA Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs?

Marzuki

Darusman

Indonesia Attorney General 1999-2001?

Kemal

Dervi

Minister of Economic Affairs of Turkey (2001-2002); Administrator of UNDP (2005-2009); Senior Fellow Global Economy and Development, Brookings Institute

Hailemariam Desalegn

Prime Minister of Ethiopia 2012-2018

Mathias

Dewatripont Professor of Economics, Universit? libre de Bruxelles

Beatrice Weder di Mauro

President, Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); Professor of International Economics, Graduate Institute in Geneva

Philip Victor J.

Dimitrov Dzau

Barry

Eichengreen

Mohamed

ElBaradei

Maria Fernanda Espinosa

Amara Gareth Jeremy Jan Louise Yasuo Chiril Ahmed Lawrence

Kolinda

Dalia Ameenah

Essy Evans Farrar Fisher Fr?chette Fukuda Gaburici Galal Gonzi GrabarKitarovic Grybauskait Gurib-Fakim

Sergei

Guriev

Alfred Tarja Seung-Soo Hilda

Gusenbauer Halonen Han Heine

Noeleen

Heyzer

Gwen

Hines

Prime Minister of Bulgaria 1991-1992? President of the National Academy of Medicine Professor of Economics and Political Science, University of California, Berkeley Egypt Director General International Atomic Energy Agency 1997-2009? 73rd President of the UNGA, former Minister on Foreign Affairs of Ecuador? Minister for Foreign Affairs of Cote d'Ivoire 1990-2000? Australia Foreign Minister 1988-1996? Director of the Wellcome Trust Prime Minister of the Czech Republic 2009-2010? Canada Deputy Secretary General, United Nations 1998-2006? Prime Minister of Japan 2007-2008? Prime Minister of Moldova 2015? Finance Minister of Egypt (2013-2014) Malta Prime Minister 2004-2013?

President of Croatia 2015-2020?

President of Lithuania 2009-2019? President of Mauritius 2015-2018? Chief Economist of the EBRD (2016-2019); Professor of Economics, Sciences Po Chancellor of Austria 2007-2008? President of Finland 2000-2012? Prime Minister of the Rep. of Korea 2008-2009? President of the Marshall Islands 2016-2020? Distinguished Visiting Fellow, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) Advisor of Club de Madrid? CEO of Save the Children UK

Bengt Enrique Dalia Mladen Harold T. Anthony Jerry

Lee

Ivo Mats Caroline Kerry John Horst Jadranka Leonid John Aleksander Zlatko Yves

Justin Yifu

Petru

Holmstrom Iglesias Itzik Ivanic James Jones Jones

Jong-wha

Josipovic Karlsson Kende-Robb Kennedy Key K?hler Kosor Kuchma Kufuor Kwaniewski Lagumdzija Leterme

Lin

Lucinschi

Nobel Laureate for Economics (2016); Professor of Economics, MIT

Secretary General of the Ibero-American Cooperation Secretariat 20052013; President of the IADB (1998-2005)??

President of the Knesset 2006-2009, interim President of Israel 2007?

President of Bosnia and Herzegovina 2014-2018?

Professor of European Studies & Professor of History and International Affairs, Princeton University

Vice-President and Executive Director of GFNA?

Executive Vice-President, Ethics and Legal Officer at Live Ramp; Advisor of Club de Madrid?

Professor of Economics, Korea University; Chief Economist & Head of the Office of Regional Economic Integration at the Asian Development Bank (2007-2013)

President of Croatia 2010-2015??

Vice President of the World Bank?

Former Executive Director, Kofi Annan's Africa Progress Panel and former Secretary General, CARE International

President Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights?

Prime Minister of New Zealand 2008-2016

President of Germany 2004-2010?

Prime Minister of Croatia 2009-2011?

President of Ukraine 1994-2005?

President of Ghana 2001-2009

President of Poland 1995-2005?

Prime Minister of Bosnia & Herzegovina 2001-2002??

Prime Minister of Belgium 2008, 2009-2011?

Chief Economist & Senior Vice-President of the World Bank (20082012); Dean of Institute of New Structural Economics, Peking University?

President of Moldova 1997-2001?

Igor Ricardo Nora Gra?a Mauricio John Dramani Susana Moussa Dalia

Colin Don Rexhep Stjepan Festus Amre Rovshan Joseph Mustapha Kamel Piroska Peter R. Bujar Olusegun Jos? Antonio

Luksic Luna Lustig Machel Macri Mahama Malcorra Mara Marin

Mayer McHenry Meidani Mesic Mogae Moussa Muradov Muscat

Prime Minister of Montenegro 2012-2015? Peru Minister of Foreign Affairs 2016-2018?

President Emeritus of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association; Professor of Latin American Economics, Tulane University Former Education Minister for Mozambique President of Argentina 2015-2019? President of Ghana 2012-2017 Former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship for the Republic of Argentina; Advisor of Club de Madrid?

Prime Minister of Mali 2014-2015? Professor of International Economics, TUM School of Management, Munich Professor of Management Studies, Sa?d Business School, University of Oxford Ambassador to the UN 1979-1981 President of Albania 1997-2002? President of Croatia 2000-2010? President of Botswana 1998-2008?? Secretary General of the Arab League 2001-2011, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt 1999-2001?

Secretary General Nizami Ganjavi International Center? Prime Minister of Malta 2013-2020?

Nabli

Governor of the Central Bank of Tunisia (2011-2012)

Nagy-Mohacsi

Programme Director of the Institute of Global Affairs, LSE; Director of Policy, EBRD (2009-2015)

Neumann

Professor King's College London; Advisor of Club de Madrid?

Nishani

President of Albania 2012-2017?

Obasanjo

President of Nigeria (1976-1979; 1999-2007)

Ocampo

Professor, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia

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