Guyana complains to UN over access to COVID vaccines at affordable costs

Apr 17, 2021 News

Kaieteur News – Guyana on Thursday lodged a complaint with the United Nations (UN) over the hurdles being faced by developing countries—itself included—in accessing COVID-19 vaccines at an affordable cost.

Senior Minister with responsibility for Finance in the Office of the President, Dr. Ashni Singh.

This was in addition to calling out the developed community for failing to provide a committed US$100 billion for climate finance by 2020.
The admonishment was adumbrated by Senior Minister with responsibility for Finance in the Office of the President, Dr. Ashni Singh.
Dr. Singh has since lamented the hurdles being faced by Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in accessing concessional financing to meet their development needs, especially in light of the targets set by the developed countries.
To this end, Dr. Singh was adamant that “this must be remedied urgently,” and that “we must explore innovative financing methods which would require the strong support of development banks at all levels.”
He was at the time addressing the 2021 United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Forum on Financing for Development which was held online yesterday.
The purpose of the forum, according to the Finance Minister, was to encourage a high-level political engagement to advance priority actions that will set the world on track for recovery and beyond.
The forum also served to allow for the promotion and sharing of concrete national, regional and global experiences and initiatives on financing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a rapidly evolving context.
To this end, Dr. Singh used the occasion to underscore the challenges that have since been presented by the novel coronavirus pandemic, in meeting these objectives.
According to Dr. Singh, while the global community has entered the last decade before the expected delivery of the SDGs, it is also a uniquely challenging time in human history since, “COVID-19 has wreaked more havoc worldwide than any other public health issue in living memory, exacerbating pre-existing systemic challenges in the global economy.”
As a result, Dr. Singh said that the unavoidable consequence has been widespread economic contraction and sharp reversal of previous hard-won development gains.
This, he observed, led to vulnerable countries, including SIDS and low-lying coastal states such as Guyana—still grappling with pre-existing challenges—now having to also confront the “harsh and lasting socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic.”
Concessional Financing
“I reiterate the heightened urgency with which the official development assistance targets set by developed countries now need to be met. I also repeat the call for the use of a vulnerability index to supplement the criteria for determining access to concessional financing,” said Dr. Singh.
He reiterated that while the immediate and most urgent challenge is stemming the pandemic, Guyana is also extremely concerned that developing countries are encountering hurdles in accessing adequate supplies of vaccines at affordable prices and on fair terms.
“Achieving herd immunity in our population is absolutely critical to our economic recovery; I emphasise the need to ensure affordable and adequate access to vaccines, particularly for the most vulnerable States,” Dr. Singh pointed out.
The Senior Finance Minister told the gathering that in Guyana’s case, the country has spent heavily on its response to the pandemic, “as total expenditure increased by 15.2 percent in 2020 and the Central Government fiscal deficit expanded to 9.4 percent of GDP in 2020 compared to 2.8 percent in 2019.”
He said too, more resources are now required to coordinate health responses, ensure equitable access to healthcare.
Dr. Singh in his remarks sought to underscore that even as the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic are confronted, “the urgency of the climate crisis must ‘remain foremost on our minds.”