G20 Leaders reaffirm their commitment to COVID-19 vaccine equity & establish a G20 joint Finance-Health Task Force

World leaders at the G20 Summit in Italy have issued a joint Communique dated October 29th 2021 in which G20 countries reaffirm their support for "all collaborative efforts to ensure a timely and equitable access to safe, affordable, quality and effective COVID-19 vaccines."

The Communique confirms that the global goals are for vaccinating at least 40% of the world's population in all countries by the end of 2021 and 70% by mid-2022, in line with the recommendations made by the World Health Organization.

Further, G20 leaders promised to take steps to help boost the supply of vaccines and essential medical products as well as to continue the support regional manufacturing capacity in Hubs around the world, including those recently established in South Africa, Brazil and Argentina. 

This Communique comes after several letters were written to G20 leaders urging them to fulfill their promises in terms of delivering up the promised COVID-19 vaccines to middle-and-low income countries. In a letter co-signed by Meghan and Harry, we were informed that of the 1.3 billion promised vaccines only 150 million had been actually shipped.