{"id":157172,"date":"2021-10-15T13:18:27","date_gmt":"2021-10-15T13:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.one.org\/canada\/?post_type=one_press&p=157172"},"modified":"2023-09-05T16:13:34","modified_gmt":"2023-09-05T16:13:34","slug":"a-failure-to-take-decisive-action-to-end-the-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"one_press","link":"https:\/\/www.one.org\/ca\/press\/a-failure-to-take-decisive-action-to-end-the-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"A failure to take decisive action to end the pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

ONE and Global Citizen react to the IMF\/World Bank Annual Meetings and G20\/G7 meetings<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Reacting to the end of the World Bank\/IMF Annual Meetings, Dr David McNair, Executive Director of Global Policy at the ONE Campaign, said:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis could have been a game-changing moment in the fight against COVID-19. It wasn\u2019t. The pandemic is killing thousands of people every day and threatens economic recovery, yet many rich countries still choose to hoard vaccines and financial resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the G20 agreed to issue $650billion of SDRs, it created a vital new reserve of funds that would help the most vulnerable countries to recover from the economic consequences of this crisis. With only a couple of G20 countries stepping up to offer a small portion of their SDR allocation, leaders’ failure to take decisive action to end the pandemic this week risks leaving millions of people exposed to the worst aftershocks.”<\/p>\n

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Looking forward to the G20 Leaders\u2019 Summit at the end of October, Friederike R\u00f6der, Vice-President, Global Advocacy at Global Citizen, also said:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen G20 leaders meet in Rome, they must commit to financing a smart response to end the economic divergence driven by the pandemic. This means having real plans to deliver at least $100 billion of SDRs this year and much more next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Reacting to the UK\u2019s announcement committing to recycling 20% of their Special Drawing Rights allocation, Romilly Greenhill, UK Director at ONE, said:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“The UK’s announcement will only make a difference if this recycling is not counted towards the 0.5% aid target. Having spent trillions in their economic recovery, not only would it be morally indefensible for the UK to fold this into its foreign aid commitment in an attempt to reduce their efforts to support vulnerable countries, but it would also severely undermine the original intention of the allocation. Rishi Sunak recently stressed \u2018the importance of supporting vulnerable countries’. He needs to back this with action, and taking SDRs from the existing aid budget sends the opposite message.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Notes to editors<\/strong><\/u><\/p>\n