The new COVID-19 variant omicron has renewed questions about vaccine inequities, and whether it is ethical for high-income countries to oppose intellectual property waivers that would allow broader global access to vaccines and other COVID-19 treatments.
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The emergence of the omicron variant has reinforced warnings that scientists have been making for months about the potential for COVID-19 to continue thriving as long as vast parts of the world lacked access to vaccines. COVAX has delivered over 563 million doses as of Nov. 29, and COVAX partners have noted that many of the donations are of vaccines close to their expiration dates and don’t include necessary paraphernalia such as syringes.
While Japan and Israel’s new travel bans cover all nationalities, the U.S., U.K., and EU travel restrictions on southern African countries after South African scientists first identified omicron have drawn criticism from officials at the World Health Organization as well as from U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres.
“The people of Africa cannot be blamed for the immorally low level of vaccinations available & should not be penalized for sharing health information with the world,” Guterres tweeted. A case with no known links to southern Africa was detected in Belgium last week, and a similar situation in the United Kingdom was reported yesterday, indicating community transmission in those counties.
Read: COVAX, partners call for changes in donated doses in 2022
As my colleague Jenny Lei Ravelo reports, nursing unions representing over 2.5 million health workers worldwide have seized the moment to file a complaint to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights against several high-income countries that have opposed a temporary waiver of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, or TRIPS, at the World Trade Organization, which would allow countries to manufacture COVID-19 products.
Global Nurses United and Progressive International submitted a letter to the U.N. on behalf of nursing unions requesting an investigation of how opposition to a TRIPS waiver from the EU, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland, and the U.K. might “constitute a continuing breach of their obligations to guarantee the right to physical and mental health of everyone.”
The complaint comes after WTO last week postponed its first ministerial meeting in four years due to omicron-related travel bans.
Read: Nurses file UN complaint against EU, other countries over TRIPS
We want to hear from you: Will this be the variant that gets people to take vaccine inequity and vaccine hesitancy seriously? Let us know at newswire@devex.com and we might publish your response in a future edition of Newswire.
Keeping tabs
Just $147 million of the more than $6 billion the U.S. Agency for International Development disbursed through contracts in fiscal year 2020 went to local organizations based in lower-, middle-, and upper-middle-income countries, according to data from USASpending.
Previously, my colleague Miguel Antonio Tamonan looked at the proportion of USAID assistance awards going to local organizations. This week, he takes another look at the agency’s local spending following Administrator Samantha Power’s pledge to commit 25% of all funding to local actors. He found that contracts were significantly less likely to be awarded to local organizations than other sources of funding.
Kenya was the biggest recipient of contract disbursements implemented by local organizations with $91.2 million received.
Devex Pro: How much went to local partners in USAID acquisition spending?
For Pro subscribers: Learn about how organizations that haven't worked with the agency before can make the most of its new Work With USAID platform. Plus, our other exclusive articles on USAID.
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On your radar
Today, the board of the World Bank is having an informal meeting on funds for Afghanistan. The discussion could be a key first step in releasing money for urgent humanitarian priorities in the country, which is buckling under sanctions — but donors to the Afghan Reconstruction Trust Fund would still have to agree unanimously to move any money out of the freezer.
ICYMI: Afghanistan’s banking sector is nearing collapse, UN warns
+ Catch up on all our aid and development coverage on Afghanistan.
A long way gone
As violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State spikes in Burkina Faso, killing thousands and internally displacing more than 1.4 million people, children are being increasingly recruited by jihadi groups, according to an internal report by international aid groups and conflict experts seen by Devex.
Sam Mednick reports that aid groups trying to combat the problem are working with children, teachers, religious leaders, and families on conflict mitigation, the importance of social cohesion, and what to do if approached by recruiters. However, they said those efforts need to be combined with development in order to address the root causes — poverty, injustice, and unemployment — driving children to join these groups
Read: Can development stop child soldier recruitment in Burkina Faso?
A fond farewell
In a new op-ed for Devex, African Development Bank Group President Akinwumi Adesina praises former German Chancellor Angela Merkel as a “dear and loyal friend of Africa” who will be missed by public figures “involved in furthering the continent’s development.”
Adesina notes that Merkel spearheaded The Compact with Africa under Germany’s presidency of the G-20 and consistently contributed to the African Development Fund at the African Development Bank. But he also writes that for “Africa to thrive and grow, the drive to do so must come mainly within Africa.”
Read: After Merkel's exit, Germany must remain committed to Africa
In other news
China has pledged to send 1 billion vaccine doses to Africa, as well as 1,500 medical workers to help the continent fight against COVID-19. [ABC]
At least 22 people have died following the latest in a spate of attacks on camps for the internally displaced in the Democratic Republic of Congo. [Al Jazeera]
An employment tribunal has found that the U.K.’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office racially discriminated against a Black civil servant following a six-month investigation into allegations of misconduct by an all-white team. [The Guardian]
Shabtai Gold contributed to this edition.
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About the author
Stephanie Beasley@Steph_Beasley
Stephanie Beasley is a Senior Reporter at Devex, where she covers global philanthropy with a focus on regulations and policy. She is an alumna of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and Oberlin College and has a background in Latin American studies. She previously covered transportation security at POLITICO.
