Pandemic Response Report Card: Italy
It has been …
… since Prime Minister Mario Draghi said "Successful vaccination campaigns and coordinated action from governments and central banks have allowed the global economy to rebound."
Deliver doses
Low and lower-middle income countries still need nearly 4.2 billion doses to fully vaccinate 70% of the population by mid-2022. To help close the gap, members of the G20 have promised to share over 2.5 billion doses by mid-2022. To date, 553 million have been delivered.
Italy has not published a dose delivery plan.
Fund the Global Response
We need at least $43 billion to vaccinate 70% of the population in every income category by September 2022. To date, $0 billion has been committed. Country shares will be available soon and governments should act fast to fill this funding gap.
Share SDRs for Economic Recovery
The pandemic’s aftershocks continue to devastate the economies of many countries. High-income countries must support more vulnerable nations with all tools available, including Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), an international reserve asset that can help support countries in emergencies. Rechannelling an initial $100 billion of SDRs in 2021 to low income and vulnerable middle income countries is a smart investment in a fairer, greener, and better recovery for everyone. To date, $45 billion has been committed from all advanced economies.
Dismantle Barriers to Vaccine Supply
Only a handful of countries have the capacity to manufacture vaccines. We need urgent action to share mRNA technology and intellectual property rights, and to adapt existing facilities and acquire the materials needed to scale up vaccine production globally.
What’s next?
Leading the G20 summit in Rome this year, Prime Minister Mario Draghi underlined the necessity for multilateralism to end the pandemic. The summit saw important progress, with a global commitment to support the economic recovery of low-income countries and to meet vaccine targets. But the summit fell short on establishing concrete, time-bound plans to deliver promised vaccines and financing. Alongside many other G7 countries, Italy also pledged to recycle 20% of its Special Drawing Rights allocation to low-income countries, an important step in financing a global economic recovery.
However, Italy has only delivered 12.6 million of the 45 million doses it committed to share by the end of 2021. Italy provided $98 million in aid for COVID-19 activities during 2020. ButItaly has committed only $493 million of the requested $890 million contribution to the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A). Italy must close the 36 million gap in vaccine doses and fill the $397 million financing gap to ACT-A.
