Wealthy Nations, False promises by corporations for fair COVID-19 recovery exposed, How Deeper Inequality in Africa – Global Issues
Nairobi, Kenya, March 29 (IPS) – Even as COVID-19 brings Africa’s already fragile health care and economic systems to the brink, wealthy nations have colluded with corporations. giant caravan to deceive people with empty slogans and false promises of a fair recovery from the ongoing situation. a health pandemic, a newly released report by Amnesty International shows.
The global human rights organization says the focus of the report is on revealing how “global leaders are selling false promises of a fair recovery from COVID-19 to tackle inequality.” profound, even though only 8% of Africa’s 1.2 billion people are fully immunized. end of 2021.”
Amnesty International Report 2021/22: The World’s Human Rights Situation found that wealthy nations, along with giant corporations, have fueled deeper global inequality. As a result, African countries have worsened and are struggling to recover from the pandemic amid substantial inequality.
Grace Gakii, a gender and development expert based in Nairobi, said being excluded from COVID-19 includes “poverty and unemployment, severe food insecurity, increased violence across the globe. gender and sexual base as well as strained and troubled health systems”.
According to the World Bank, as early as August 2020, the economic downturn caused by COVID-19 has pushed an estimated 88 to 115 million people in the world’s most vulnerable communities into extreme poverty. . For the first time in a generation, gains in global poverty reduction have been reversed. For example, a United Nations-backed report indicates that extreme poverty in West Africa has increased by nearly 3% in 2020 due to COVID-19.
The World Bank’s Kenya Economy Update shows that the East African nation added two million ‘new poor’ as of November 2020 due to the ongoing health pandemic. Many people like Alice Atieno in large informal settlements practice farming sacks outside their roofs to put food on the table.
According to Amnesty International, many countries in Africa and sub-Saharan Africa face many socio-economic challenges due to the uneven distribution of vaccines by 2021.
“COVID-19 should have been a decisive wake-up call to tackle inequality and poverty. Instead, we have seen deeper inequality and greater instability in Africa exacerbated by global powers, especially wealthy nations, who does not guarantee that the major pharmaceutical companies distribute vaccines evenly across countries to ensure the same level of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Deprose Muchena, Director for East and South Africa of Amnesty International.
“Currently, most African countries will take longer to recover from COVID-19 due to high levels of inequality and poverty. The consequences of COVID-19 have hit the most disadvantaged communities hardest, including those on the front lines of endemic poverty from Angola to Zambia, Ethiopia to Somalia, and the Republic of Central Africa to Sierra Leone. ”
Dr Githinji Gitahi, a medical doctor who is currently the global CEO of Amref Health Africa, said IPS Africa was first disappointed when they were desperate for a COVID-19 vaccine. But they were hoarded despite the high and urgent demand.
He told IPS that the trajectory has changed because the supply of COVID-19 vaccine has improved significantly after rich countries satisfied their demand and greed. With this sudden increase, more than 50% of the dose on the continent has been supplied since November 2021. However, other cracks have appeared and will continue to widen if urgent response measures are taken. is not done.
“Africa has large inequalities regarding the distribution and supply of COVID-19 vaccines between urban and rural areas and between rich and poor communities. While urban centers may have reached 50% COVID-19 vaccine coverage, some rural areas have vaccine uptake rates below 10% even in Kenya,” he commented.
He explained that inequalities in vaccine distribution exist between countries and within countries because initially, countries in Africa, including low-income countries, are required to buy their vaccines.
This comes before COVAX – the Organization for Global Access to COVID-19 Vaccines, co-led by GAVI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the World Health Organization – can deliver a dose of the vaccine. apply for Low Income Countries as previously planned.
“African countries with a need to buy were able to access these vaccines before other countries. For example, Kenya purchased a COVID-19 vaccine with a loan from the World Bank. Other African countries cannot afford it.”
Gitahi added on the different capacities that countries have to provide these vaccines when they come to African countries, as countries have better health system infrastructure than others.
“The capacity of the health system in terms of clinical staff and the vaccine cold chain to ensure proper storage and distribution of vaccines in a country like Morocco is not the same as in South Sudan or even Chad. . This creates inequality because of the lack of capacity to provide vaccines to people and, moreover, in remote areas in a way that is convenient for them,” he warned.
“Today they are sending vaccines to Africa, and they are almost dumped, and some of them are expired vaccines forcing countries to hold back shipments. and requires that all incoming vaccines have a shelf life of at least three months. Supply is high, but convenient distribution and delivery is low in informal employment communities and establishments that are only open on weekdays when people go to work.”
Just because a country can and has received millions of doses of vaccines does not mean that people are receiving these vaccines in a way that is relevant to their daily lives. He says millions of doses of the drug will reach his hands three months or six weeks before the expiration date.
Africa needs a continuously increasing supply of vaccines to match supply capacity so that vaccines are readily available and easily accessible to all who need them on time – further emphasizing the need to Match shipments to absorbency to avoid waste while at the same time being productive. to improve delivery capacity.
As transport and distribution capacity in African countries is not growing, health experts like Gitahi are warning that Africa will not be equipped to overcome and recover from the challenges. caused by COVID-19 and socioeconomic inequality will increase.
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