Former President Thabo Mbeki has joined over 200 former Presidents, Prime Ministers and International Public Servants in calling on the G20 to immediately commit additional financial resources to fill the most urgent gaps in the COVID-19 response.
In a letter to the G20 with signatories including former UN Chief Bank Ki Moon, former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, and The Elders among a host of high profile figures, they call on the world’s richest nations for more than $200-billion in additional financing to supplement actions being taken by International Financial Institutions.
The letter calls for $1 billion to be allocated to the World Health Organisation (WHO) to enable it to carry out its mandate in full, around $10 billion for vaccines and their distribution to the world’s poorest countries, and more than $2 billion for therapeutic treatments while vaccines are being developed.
It proposes the convening of a global pledging conference to commit resources to meet these emergency global health needs. The document states that while national governments do what they can to counter the downward slide of their economies, it points to what is now a global economic problem requiring a global economic response.
The letter further calls on the international community to waive this year’s debt repayments from poorer countries including $44 billion due from African nations. It continues that at least $150 billion in overall support will be needed for health, social safety nets and other urgent needs and calls for immediate action from the G20, the IMF and World Bank.
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