Speaking at the launch of the Bank’s African Economic Outlook 2021 report on Friday, African Development Bank president, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, levelled strong criticism at the lack of Covid-19 vaccines reaching Africa.
“We need global solidarity and vaccine justice for Africa,” he said.
Adesina underlined the stark disparities between vaccine acquisitions by several rich countries that have acquired sufficient vaccines to inoculate their populations twice over, and African countries that remain primarily dependent on the World Health Organization’s Covax initiative for the minuscule quantities acquired so far.
Speaking on CNN’s First Move with Julia Chatterley on Friday, Adesina said: “So far, 14.6 million vaccines have been delivered in Africa, but many people still cannot get shots in their arms. That is only 1% of what we need. We are way off the mark in terms of getting to 60% of herd immunity, and sadly, I do not see that happening for another year or two at this rate - not unless things change.
“We therefore need to improve Africa’s access to vaccines. Covax is doing a great job but still, we need more. We need them in adequate quantity. We need them quickly and we need them at an affordable price.”
Acquiring vaccines has significant implications for African countries. As Adesina emphasised in a broader discussion with panelists at the event - including professor Joseph Stiglitz, recipient of the 2001 Nobel Memorial Prize for Economic Sciences for Africa - a comprehensive global plan was needed to help countries cope with mounting debt, which the pandemic had compounded.
Africa’s economy is expected to grow by 3.1% in 2021. However, 39 million Africans could be pushed into extreme poverty this year because of the pandemic unless the international community takes the kind of action that Stiglitz and Adesina are calling for now.
“As long as Africans remain unvaccinated, the world will go right back to square one,” said Adesina.
He said no amount of ‘vaccine passports’ being advocated for by some developed countries could change that fact.
“Africa needs to develop its pharmaceutical industry and begin manufacturing. The African Development Bank is going to support African countries to do this,” Adesina said.
“One of the things that some of us have been campaigning for is the suspension of the intellectual property rights related to Covid-19 because if access were more extensive, there is throughout the emerging markets and developing countries considerable capacity to produce a lot more vaccines.”
He added that it was in the self-interest of advanced countries to make sure that everybody had access to the vaccine and other related medicines.
“The longer the disease festers in any part of the world, it can mutate - and one of the things we know is that those mutations are not going to respect borders. The Covid-19 virus doesn’t carry a passport.”
