WHO head thanks Ramaphosa for support

World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was on hand to thank President Cyril Ramaphosa after his speech on inequality at last week’s New Global Financing Pact Summit in Paris, France. 

Ramaphosa did not mince his words on financing development and climate action, criticising developed countries for using their buying power to stockpile Covid-19 vaccines in 2020, thereby leaving African countries with little.

Tedros said the pandemic exposed structural inequities that existed long before the coronavirus engulfed the world. 

“The pandemic fund was established to address critical gaps in pandemic preparedness, especially in lower-income countries. We still do not have all of the financing tools we need to tackle the next pandemic and there are already worrying signs that the cycle of panic and neglect is repeating,” he said.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has been a demonstration of the intimate links between global health and the global economy. It has reminded us that when one is damaged, both suffer.”

Tedros urged leaders at the summit to support intergovernmental forums such as the G7 and G20 to finance health initiatives. 

After the summit, Ghebreyesus thanked Ramaphosa for supporting the WHO.

“There is no climate action without resilient health systems,” he said. 

Ramaphosa said global development financing, if properly directed and provided on a significant scale, could make a difference to developing countries.

He told the summit African leaders felt like beggars when they tried to obtain vaccines. 

“The northern hemisphere countries bought all the vaccines in the world and they were hogging them and did not want to release them at a time we needed them the most,” Ramaphosa said.

“It got worse when we wanted to manufacture our own vaccines. When we went to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) there was a lot of resistance, enormous resistance. We kept saying what is more important, lives or profits by your pharmaceutical companies?

“And that, too, generated and deepened the disappointment and resentment on our part because we felt like life in the northern hemisphere is much more important than life in the global south.

“These are the issues that need to be addressed,” Ramaphosa said.

Sunday Times