THIS week, leaders of the world’s richest nations – the Group of Seven (G7) – will this week meet in the United Kingdom (UK) to discuss, among others, the state of the world economy. As has become customary, South Africa has been invited to attend the meeting alongside Australia, India and South Korea.
The meeting is taking place against the backdrop of an uneven progress being made in containing the coronavirus pandemic which has ravaged the world economy over the past 18 months.
The rich world has made considerable progress in vaccinating their population – for example, the US, which initially mishandled the pandemic through ignoring science, has now vaccinated the majority of its population and is now offering the vaccines to foreigners. The UK is on its way to easing its economy out of lockdown by June 21 2021.
And, more concerning, most of the developed world is sitting on more vaccine doses than it needs.
In contrast, the developing world including Africa has only vaccinated a fraction of its population (Africa has vaccinated only 2% of its population) and has a huge shortage of vaccine doses for its population.
The slow progress of vaccine rollout means that it will take longer for poor economies to fully reopen and recover. For example, countries like ours are still relying on counterproductive lockdowns to contain the spread of the virus. A week ago, for example, President Cyril Ramaphosa moved the country to alert level 2 (more restrictions such as a new curfew that limits trading hours at restaurants) to help curb the resurgence of the virus.
Suppressing Covid-19’s spread through lockdowns delays economic recovery and job creation. Last week’s data, suggesting that unemployment had risen to some 32,6%, is proof point of the effect of the continued restrictions on economic activity.
Without achieving herd immunity – that is, vaccinating enough people against the virus – there can be no economic recovery.
It would be foolhardy for the rich world to think it can prosper while the rest of the poor world is left behind. This is the message that Ramaphosa should take to this week’s G7 leaders’ summit.
More specifically, he needs to appeal to the leaders of the rich world to release the excess vaccine doses to the developing world, especially African nations.
Commendably, the president has lobbied for the waiver of trade-related aspects of intellectual property to allow for wider access to the vaccine. This call now has the support of US president Joe Biden. It should be adopted by the G7.
Adoption by the G7 will be a significant step towards clearing the remaining hurdle – that is, approval by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the global trade watchdog.
Not only has the pandemic accentuated the inequalities between the developed and developing countries, it has also provided a platform for powerful countries to use the vaccination issue to fight and undermine each other.
This should be stopped.
The world needs strong collaboration – not rivalry – to decisively defeat this pandemic. Up until now, global solidarity has been in scarce supply. Two reasons are to blame for this: first, it was the withdrawal of the US from global cooperation under the leadership of Donald Trump; and second, the chaotic exit of the UK from the European Union (EU) significantly slowed down multilateral cooperation.
These two events are now behind us. Multilateral cooperation should be strengthened. Ending this pandemic is a test of the revival of co-operation.
As well as ensuring that the vaccine is widely available to all those who need it, the rich world should also strengthen economic recovery in the developing world. Unlike poor countries, the rich world pumped trillions of dollars and euros into stimulating their economies. They are now benefiting from this investment.
No-one is safe until all of us are safe.
• Zungu is president of the Black Business Council and founder of Zungu Investments Company which owns AmaZulu Football Club
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