G20 leaders pledged on Sunday 31 October in Rome to “contribute to achieving the global goals of vaccinating at least 40% of the population in all countries by the end of 2021 and 70% by mid-2022, as recommended by the WHO Global Immunisation Strategy”, according to the final communiqué.
To this end, they pledge to avoid export restrictions, to promote “the recognition of vaccines deemed safe and effective by the WHO” and to redouble efforts “to ensure the transparent, timely and predictable supply and use of vaccines where they are needed”. They also call on the private sector and multilateral financial institutions to contribute to this endeavour.
It is thus on the global anti-Covid-19 vaccination front where they have shown most ambition (see EUROPE 12823/9).
In their communiqué, they reaffirm their “commitment to the Global Health Summit Rome Declaration [of May 2021] as a compass for collective action” (see EUROPE 12724/5) and commit to strengthening global health governance.
However, they did not agree on a funding mechanism for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (PPR), which the EU had called for in the form of a Health and Financing Board and an Intermediary Fund.
The G20 leaders decided, for the time being, to establish a joint G20 Finance-Health Working Group “to strengthen global dialogue and cooperation on PPR issues, promote the exchange of experiences and best practices, develop coordination arrangements between finance and health ministries, promote collective action, and assess and address health emergencies with a cross-border impact”.
This working group “will report by early 2022 on the modalities for setting up a financial mechanism”.
See the G20 statement: https://bit.ly/2Y7D9uu (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)