poor nations - The African Mirror

Oct

2022

Analysis: Poor nations face peril over elusive G-20 debt relief push

KARIN STROHECKER and ANDREA SHALAL A failure to secure meaningful progress on debt relief for the world's poorest nations at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meeting in Washington has left policymakers, campaigners and investors frustrated. Two years ago the Group of 20 launched the Common Framework - a mechanism designed to provide a swift and comprehensive debt overhaul to nations buckling under debt burdens after the COVID-19 shock that would reach beyond temporary debt payment moratoriums. But results have proven elusive, hampered by a combination of a lack of progress in bringing key creditors around the table…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

The poor nations trailing in the fight against COVID-19

COVID-19

NITA BHALLA and ANASTASIA MOLONEY AT a private hospital in Burundi's capital, emergency specialist Emmanuel Kubwayo is worried for the first time since the coronavirus started spreading around the world last year. Kubwayo initially shared the government's view that the small central African country did not need COVID-19 vaccines because it had so few cases. But as deaths and infections surge across Africa, he has changed his mind. Along with Eritrea, Tanzania and North Korea, Burundi is one of a handful of nations that have not started vaccinations, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), potentially threatening global efforts to…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Africans slam rich nations

COVID-19

NITA BHALLA CHARITIES in Africa have slammed rich nations for blocking efforts to waive patents for COVID-19 vaccines, saying this would prolong the pandemic for years in poorer nations and push millions across the continent deeper into poverty. More than 40 charities, including Amnesty International and Christian Aid, said Wednesday's move by Western nations to prevent generic or other manufacturers making more vaccines in poorer nations was "an affront on people's right to healthcare." Peter Kamalingin, Oxfam International's Africa director, said sub-Saharan Africa - 14% of the global population - had received only 0.2% of 300 million vaccine doses administered…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

‘Waive vaccine patents to benefit the poor’

COVID-19

DENIS BALIBOUSE DOCTORS Without Borders (MSF) staged a protest at the World Trade Organization on Thursday against what it said was the rich world's reluctance to waive patents and allow more production of COVID-19 vaccines for poorer nations. Activists seeking a waiver of intellectual property rules unfurled a huge sign reading "No COVID Monopolies - Wealthy Countries Stop Blocking TRIPS Waiver" in the park next to WTO's headquarters on Lake Geneva. They want the terms of the TRIPS agreement -- the WTO's Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property -- to be overridden to allow generic or other manufactures to make the…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

UNICEF says to ship 2 billion COVID-19 vaccines to poor nations in 2021

COVID-19

LIN TAYLOR NEARLY 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines will be shipped and flown to developing countries next year in a "mammoth operation", the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said on Monday, as world leaders vowed to ensure the fair distribution of vaccines. UNICEF said it was working with over 350 airlines and freight companies to deliver vaccines and 1 billion syringes to poor countries such as Burundi, Afghanistan and Yemen as part of COVAX, a global COVID-19 vaccine allocation plan with the World Health Organization (WHO). "This invaluable collaboration will go a long way to ensure that enough transport capacity is…