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 The
document, subject to changes before a global health summit to be
held in Rome on May 21, also says that leaders of the world's 20
largest economies are committed to urgent action this year to boost
manufacturing capacity for anti-COVID technologies, but omits
mention of vaccine patent waivers.
According to the draft, leaders will for the first time express an
explicit commitment "to fair and full financing of the Access to
COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) strategy", which is the WHO's
scheme to make COVID-19 vaccines, drugs and tests available to
everybody in the world.
The scheme was launched in April 2020 and is still vastly
underfunded. Of the over $34 billion it has been seeking to develop,
procure and distribute anti-COVID vaccine and drugs across the world
it is still missing $19 billion.
In previous statements, G20 leaders said they would address global
financing needs but refrained from making any firm financial
commitment. On Wednesday, foreign affairs ministers of the G7 group
of the most industrialised nations, which are all members of the
G20, reiterated their will to give financial support to the scheme
but stopped short of saying they would fully meet its financial
needs.
The draft is to be discussed at a meeting on Thursday of diplomats
and experts preparing the G20 summit.
G20 leaders also commit in the draft "to global sharing of surplus
vaccine doses", but the document does not clarify whether excess
vaccines bought by wealthy nations would be shared through the WHO
scheme for vaccines, known as COVAX, or through bilateral deals or
regional mechanisms such as one set up by the European Union, which
critics say may hamper COVAX's efforts for a fair distribution of
shots.
PATENT WAIVERS?
The four-page draft document is still missing parts on some
controversial issues, including on "bottlenecks and barriers to
equitable access" for which paragraphs have been reserved in the
communique but with no draft conclusions yet.
Vaccine patent waivers are considered a way of allowing equitable
access, but there is no mention of that possible measure in the
draft statement at the moment.
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On Wednesday, U.S. President Joe Biden, in a dramatic turnaround
from traditional U.S. policy, said he would back waivers of
intellectual rights in a bid to boost global production of vaccines.
The statement drove down share prices of pharmaceutical companies.
The European Union has repeatedly opposed such a waiver, saying it
would not address production problems which it deems are mostly
caused by shortages of raw materials. However, EU Commission chief
Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday she would be open to discuss
the U.S. proposal.
The draft statement says G20 leaders want to boost global and
regional manufacturing capacity and will support efforts "further
enabling access to health technologies". In November the G20 said it
would only support "voluntary licensing" of vaccine intellectual
property.
The draft statement also says that G20 leaders support a "fully
funded, independent and effective WHO".
The U.N. agency during the COVID-19 pandemic has been criticised for
lack of effectiveness as it is forced to rely excessively on member
countries' funding. Its efforts to assess the origin of the outbreak
in China and send rapid global warnings have also been questioned.
The draft says the G20, which includes China, commits to "ensure
transparency and international cooperation for WHO-led teams' access
to sites of potential and actual outbreak origin".
The G20 also plans new measures this year to set up early warning
and alert systems for threat detection "with clear triggers for
swift global response", the draft document says.
(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascio; Editing by Nick
Macfie)
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