COVID-19

GCAP has been active in responding to the COVID-19 crisis. Below or in the News section our latest resources and statements can be found.

Asia Position Paper on COVID-19 Pandemic & Vaccine Inequality

 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The world witnessed the wrath of highly infectious Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 1 (SARS-Cov-2), which was never experienced in the last century. The case fatality ratio for COVID-19 has been lower than SARS of 2003, but the transmission has been significantly greater, with a significant total death toll. It all started in December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei, China and engulfed the whole world by August 2020. More than 637 million people have been affected by COVID-19 across the globe and counting. The COVID-19 virus is frequently mutating and new variants spreading fast and re-infecting people. Countries have witnessed COVID-19 waves, during that time span number of infections and death rose high, and there are 6.6 million deaths reported so far and deaths in Asian countries is more than 1.4 million. This is when underreported death cases due lack of tests and treatment in many low income countries.

The whole world was taken off guard, as similar situation was never experienced in memorable history. Even countries with well-developed health infrastructure and advanced healthcare systems failed to cope with the crisis. The situation in low and middle-income countries with underdeveloped health systems and poor health infrastructure was devastating. Along with checking the spread of COVID-19, there is no proper treatment for the novel coronavirus. Supply of medical products and equipment are found to be in short supply, and low income countries find it hard to access diagnostics and therapeutics. Apart from access to vaccines, tests and treatment (including Long COVID) are major challenges the Asian countries are facing.

To contain the spread of COVID-19 and subsequent devastation, in absence of treatment, many countries imposed restrictions and lockdowns impacting the life and livelihoods of all. Apart from health, there is a devastating effect on the economy and society at large. All businesses and industries were closed down, affecting most of the informal sector. There are 147 million who lost jobs in Asia alone and 148 million were pushed into extreme poverty (Oxfam). Ukraine war and uncontrolled inflation, further add to the woe of low income countries and poor and marginalised within many Asian countries. The impact of COVID-19 is all encompassing, children are still recovering from learning loss. On the other hand, administrations are clueless about how to check dropout rates among children belonging to socially vulnerable categories. In the whole process, whether health or economy it was the weaker section of society who bear the maximum burnt due to COVID-19.

Governments were criticised for a surge in hospitalisation and deaths, which resulted partly due to improper management, unscientific and irrational decisions. They were also criticised for the long neglect of the health sector mainly in Asian countries and the overwhelming poor health system that struggled to manage the general health system along with the huge demand for COVID-19 related hospitalisation and treatment. However, many also acknowledge the good work, progressive policy decisions and stimulus policies of Asian governments. Provisions for treatment despite the stressed health system, incentivising the poor, strengthening the social security measures and providing people with cash and food stuffs at subsidized rates or free are some of the commendable works from various Asian governments.

Containing the spread of COVID-19 is still a real challenge when vaccinating the masses (mostly free of cost) is the need of the hour. Dealing with vaccine hesitancy, short supply due to vaccine hoarding and stockpiling by high income countries, profit-seeking multinational pharmaceutical companies and prioritising the vulnerable to vaccination are some of the challenges the low income countries are still facing.

Against this backdrop, free, universal and equitable vaccination is a concern. Under-reporting of death cases due to lack of tests and treatment needs to be addressed. Now bridging the gaps in COVID-19 vaccine, diagnostics and therapeutics among low income and high income countries through relaxing the trade and transportation is critical. The international initiatives from WHO (COVAX and C-TAP) need to be followed in letter and spirit. Technology transfer and open sharing of vaccine, science, technology and knowledge through TRIPS waiver are needed so that all could access the vaccine, diagnostics and therapeutics. The pandemic is far from over, countries need to learn to end inequality within and between countries and ensure “leave no one behind”. Political leadership should understand “No one is safe until everyone is safe” well and lead everyone to safety.

Read the full paper here.

Permalink: https://gcap.global/news/asia-position-paper-on-covid-19-pandemic-vaccine-inequality/

Afghanistan civil society position paper on Covid pandemic and vaccination (2022)

EXECUTVE SUMMARY

This position paper on Covid pandemic and vaccination was developed by GCAP Afghanistan. In this paper the overall situation of the Covid pandemic and vaccination in the country has been covered. The very first confirmed case in Afghanistan was confirmed on 24th February 2020 while in 23th March 2020 the first death case was confirmed in Afghanistan. Following the initial case, numbers rose in March 2020 due to the return of Afghans from Iran, which had a high caseload. The Government responded early with school closures and lockdown measures. A Ministry of Public Health survey in August 2020 estimated that one-third of the population had contracted COVID-19. Overtime, 7783 death cases are registered in Afghanistan with  a total of overall 194614 Covid19 registered cases.. The vaccine doses administered in the country till date is 11,588,893 out of which only 30% of the marginalized communities covered. However, more than 60% of the vaccinated marginalized community didn’t opt to take the second dose of the vaccine. AstraZeneca Vaccine, Sinopharm Vaccine and Johnson and Johnson vaccine were arrived in Afghanistan in different phases of the pandemic. Internally displaced people, children with disabilities and street workers are among the most marginalized affected by the impact of Covid19. The vaccination priority was given to Patients, doctors and armed forces of Afghanistan. The vaccines were then easily available for groups of people in Afghanistan in July 2021. For the time being, the vaccine is available in all the health facilities of Afghanistan for all the groups of people free of cost, however, 70% of the communities reported unavialibility of vaccine for the most marginalized communities at the pandemic peak. 97% of women in the marginalized community reported an increase in violence against them during the pandemic. The most affected sector during the pandemic is the education sector where number of student failed to attempt their school for more than a year.

Read the full paper here.

Permalink: https://gcap.global/news/afghanistan-country-position-paper-on-covid-and-vaccines/

GCAP joins 200 world leaders in signing People’s Vaccine Alliance Open Letter, says “Never Again” to the “scar” of vaccine inequality

THREE YEARS INTO PANDEMIC, 200 WORLD LEADERS SAY “NEVER AGAIN” TO THE “SCAR” OF VACCINE INEQUALITY

• Ban Ki-Moon, Helen Clark, Joyce Banda, Joseph Stiglitz, and Winnie Byanyima join scores of leaders in open letter three years into the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Inequity of vaccine rollout resulted in one preventable COVID-19 death every 24 seconds in first year of vaccination alone.

• Governments must embed equity and human rights in pandemic preparedness and response after COVID-19 left “a scar on the world’s conscience”, leaders say.

More than 200 current and former world leaders, Nobel laureates, civil society organisations, faith leaders, and health experts have united to call on governments to “never again” allow “profiteering and nationalism” to come before the needs of humanity in a pandemic, in a letter coordinated by the People’s Vaccine Alliance to mark three years since the World Health Organization (WHO) first characterised COVID-19 as a pandemic.

President José Manuel Ramos-Horta of Timor-Leste, recipient of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, has signed the letter, alongside the former leaders of more than 40 countries, including Joyce Banda, former President of Malawi; José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, former Prime Minister of Spain; Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former President of Brazil; and Viktor and Kateryna Yushchenko, former President and First Lady of Ukraine.

They join Graça Machel, former First Lady of South Africa and Mozambique; Nobel laureates like Joseph E. Stiglitz and Sir Richard Roberts; faith leaders including the Archbishop of Cape Town and the Bishop of Salford, and former heads of institutions including the United Nations, World Bank, the UN General Assembly, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the OECD, UNICEF, and the International Labour Organization.

The leaders put forward a scathing analysis of the world’s pandemic response. COVID-19 countermeasures were developed and delivered with enormous public funding, signatories say. Therefore, they are “the people’s vaccines, the people’s tests, and the people’s treatments”. But instead of distributing COVID-19 vaccines, tests, and treatments based on need, pharmaceutical companies sold doses first to the “richest countries with the deepest pockets”.

This inequity led to one preventable death every 24 seconds in the first year of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout alone, according to analysis from the People’s Vaccine Alliance based on a study published in the Lancet. It is “a scar on the world’s conscience” that those lives were not saved, signatories say.

Signatories call on world leaders to pledge that “Never again will the lives of people in wealthy countries be prioritised over the lives of people in the Global South. Never again will publicly funded science be locked behind private monopolies. Never again will a company’s desire to make extraordinary profits come before the needs of humanity.”

They call on governments to embed “equity and human rights in pandemic preparedness and response” by treating publicly funded medical innovations as “global common goods… used to maximise the public benefit, not private profits”, and by embedding these principles in the Pandemic Accord that is currently under negotiation at the WHO.

This requires an automatic mechanism in any pandemic to remove the intellectual property barriers that prevent the sharing of scientific knowledge and technology, the signatories say. To address these barriers in the ongoing pandemic, they call on governments to act at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to ease patents on COVID-19 tests and treatments.

Governments should support and invest in public research, development, and manufacturing capacity, particularly in the Global South, the leaders say. They call on governments to provide “political, financial, and technical support” for the WHO’s mRNA Technology Transfer Hub project, which is sharing mRNA technology with producers in 15 low and middle-income countries.

The letter will be sent to all governments via their representatives in Geneva.

GCAP, represented by Co-Chairs Georgina Munoz, Oumar Sow and Director Ingo Ritz signed the document to signify our support and solidarity with the case.

Read the full letter on PVA’s website here.

Download the letter and see all the full list of signatories here.

Permalink: https://gcap.global/news/gcap-joins-200-world-leaders-in-signing-peoples-vaccine-alliance-open-letter-says-never-again-to-the-scar-of-vaccine-inequality/

WATCH: GCAP Global Webinar on COVID Vaccines, Universal Health Care (UHC) and the Pandemic Treat

GCAP Global Webinar on COVID Vaccines, Universal Health Care (UHC) and the Pandemic Treaty

Watch the recording here: https://youtu.be/E_HJEJXS9gY

Last March 2, 2023 GCAP Global organised a webinar where we discussed the following topics with resource speakers:

  1. Global vaccination situation by Maaza Seyoum, People’s Vaccine Alliance (PVA)
  2. Why Universal Health Care is a necessity – yesterday, today and tomorrow: Jennifer Ho, APCASO
  3. Understanding The Pandemic Treaty: Gopakumar, Third World Network

This was followed by an open forum of questions, and a sharing of insights from GCAP representatives from Africa (by Kavengo Matundu, GCAP Africa Coordinator) and the Latin America & Caribbean Region (by Georgina Munoz, GCAP Co-Chair). The programme was closed by GCAP’s own Caroline Usikpedo.

Read more from the concept note & programme here.

Permalink: https://gcap.global/news/watch-gcap-global-webinar-on-covid-vaccines-universal-health-care-uhc-and-the-pandemic-treat/

GCAP March 2023 Newsletter: Statement on International Women’s Day 2023 #EmbraceEquity

GCAP Statement on International Women’s Day 2023

 

Dear Colleagues,

On March 8 we celebrate International Women’s Day!

As GCAP, we prepared a statement on the current situation of women in English, Spanish and French.
See below.

We invite you to participate in the Social Media Action of GCAP on 8 March – galvanising the voices of the Community women on gender inequality in various fields. You are invited to use the IWD Social Media Action Toolkit here:
GCAP IWD 2023 Toolkit (English)
GCAP IWD 2023 Toolkit (Spanish)
GCAP IWD 2023 Toolkit (French)

In Solidarity,

Ingo Ritz, Director, and Divine Magno, Communications Officer

GCAP Statement on International Women’s Day 2023
End Discrimination against Women, Forward Progress for All – #EmbraceEquity 

 

SDGs and Gender Equality
The SDG report 2022[1] paints a grim picture of the progress made on the SDG 5: Gender Equality and Empowering All women and Girls. The social and economic fallout from the pandemic has made worse the already fragile situation on the progress on gender equality. In several areas like in unpaid care and domestic work, decision-making regarding sexual and reproductive health, and gender-responsive budgeting, we are falling behind. Violence against women continues unabated. 
Inequality and Poverty

While in the past decade, the richest 1 percent had captured around half of all new wealth, during the pandemic, it has bagged twice as much wealth as the rest[2] – increase in the levels of inequality has been unprecedented! More and more people have been pushed to extreme poverty conditions increasing the hunger of the world. As many as 198 million have been added, taking the extreme poor category to 860 million. Roughly one in ten people in the World live in hunger, suggest research findings. While the general condition of people has worsened, the condition of women has been the worst! The food insecurity level of women is much higher than men across the world.
On the front of employment, the OXFAM report, “Survival of the Richest[3]” suggests that globally women lost 64 million jobs due to the pandemic. And twice as many young women lost their jobs during the pandemic as young men. It’s well known that the character of women’s employment is marked by much greater levels of informality, particularly in the global south, making them vulnerable to job dismissal. The domestic workers were the worst hit during the pandemic.
Women from the most discriminated and excluded sections like elderly women, indigenous communities, women and girls with disabilities, communities facing discrimination by Work and Descent (CDWD) are the most affected. They faced higher risk of Covid transmission, fatalities, loss of livelihood, and increased violence. In Latin America and the Caribbean there are serious issues of femicide, gender inequality and above all obstacles for the women to access their rights. Barriers to women’s right to land and housing remain and inequalities persist in the form of gender segregation in the workforce and lower wages for work.

 

Access to vaccine and health:

During the process of vaccination and access to health services, women faced issues of limited mobility to reach health facilities and vaccination sites exacerbated by limited control over resources for accessing them including lack of information about vaccines and vaccine safety. The Dalit women across South Asia faced discrimination on access to the vaccines.

Women also constitute 70 per cent of health workers and first responders are women who are more vulnerable to the virus, but hardly have they been at par with their male counterparts in terms of payment and priorities.

Despite the improved global vaccination situation, Africa remains poorly vaccinated even now which is the direct fall out of the vaccine nationalism and Pharma greed backed by the rich countries. While the percentage of people who got at least one dose of vaccine is 71.8 percent, Africa has the lowest vaccination rate of any continent with just 35.2 percent of the population receiving one dose of a vaccine. There is evidence that women in the poorest countries of Africa are missing out on vaccines.


Recommendations:
  • Far more radical and transformative steps are required to achieve the SDGs by 2030
  • Accelerate pandemic response and extend it to the most vulnerable communities – including the remote areas in provinces where access to vaccines remains difficult, especially for women with disabilities & other marginalised communities
  • Adequate measures are taken by governments to better cope with any future pandemic
  • A complete TRIPS waiver of the Covid vaccine, test and treatment is necessary to enable the global community to fight the virus
  • The government should put in place policies of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) through public funding that goes beyond the insurance model. The UHC ought to be seen from an angle of right to health, i.e., right of each person to health regardless of their ability to pay, where they are, and their socio-political identity. The women must be at the centre of such a model
  • The government investment in the health sector should be at least 5% of GDP at the national level
  • Demand a long-term, operational and sustainable financial commitment to social protection including the Global Fund for Social Protection to achieve social protection by all in 2030. This must include all women and be based on social justice, equity and rights based-approaches for community resilience
  • Urge governments to be more accountable towards their constituents for gender-based mistreatment – no to violence against women! Creating awareness among both women and men about the importance of empathy towards each other will be instrumental in preventing violence against women and girls.
  • All states, with no exemption, must comply with their human rights commitments by adopting and implementing policies, laws, programs, and budgets that align with international conventions, such as the Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and ILO conventions, protocols, and social security guarantees related to migrant workers, indigenous peoples, wage protection, domestic workers, workers’ health, and the social protection floor.
On International Women’s Day 2023, GCAP urges governments and communities to work together to end violence, exclusion, and discrimination against all women and girls and achieve gender equality and inclusion. 

Leave no woman behind and #EmbraceEquity!

Estimados colegas,

Nos uniremos el 8 de marzo, Día Internacional de la Mujer. Como GCAP, preparamos en el Día Internacional de la Mujer sobre la situación actual de las mujeres en inglés, español y francés.
Véase más abajo.

Para ello, puedes utilizar el kit de herramientas para la acción en medios sociales del Día Internacional de la Mujer, aqui:

En solidaridad,

Ingo Ritz, Director, y Divine Magno, Responsable de Comunicación

Declaración del GCAP en el Día Internacional de la Mujer 2023 
Poner fin a la discriminación contra la mujer, impulsar el progreso para todos – #EmbraceEquity

ODS e igualdad de género

El informe sobre los ODS 2022[1], ofrece un panorama desalentador de los progresos realizados en el ODS 5: Igualdad de género y empoderamiento de todas las mujeres y niñas. Las consecuencias sociales y económicas de la pandemia han empeorado la ya frágil situación de los avances en igualdad de género. Nos estamos quedando rezagados en varios ámbitos, como los cuidados no remunerados y el trabajo doméstico, la toma de decisiones en materia de salud sexual y reproductiva y los presupuestos sensibles al género. La violencia contra las mujeres no cesa.

Desigualdad y pobreza

Mientras que en la década pasada el 1% más rico había acaparado alrededor de la mitad de toda la nueva riqueza, durante la pandemia se ha embolsado el doble de riqueza que el resto: ¡el aumento de los niveles de desigualdad no ha tenido precedentes! Cada vez más personas han sido empujadas a condiciones de pobreza extrema, aumentando el hambre en el mundo. Se han sumado 198 millones, lo que eleva la categoría de pobres extremos a 860 millones. Aproximadamente una de cada diez personas en el mundo pasa hambre, según los resultados de la investigación. Aunque la condición general de las personas ha empeorado, ¡la de las mujeres ha sido la peor! El nivel de inseguridad alimentaria de las mujeres es muy superior al de los hombres en todo el mundo.

En cuanto al empleo, el informe de OXFAM « Survival of the Richest »[2] sugiere que, a escala mundial, las mujeres perdieron 64 millones de puestos de trabajo debido a la pandemia. Durante la pandemia perdieron sus empleos el doble de las mujeres jóvenes en comparación con los hombres jóvenes. Es bien sabido que el carácter del empleo femenino está marcado por unos niveles de informalidad mucho mayores, sobre todo en el sur global, lo que las hace vulnerables al despido laboral. Las trabajadoras domésticas fueron las más afectadas durante la pandemia.

Las mujeres de los sectores más discriminados y excluidos, como: las ancianas, las comunidades indígenas, las mujeres y niñas con discapacidad, las comunidades discriminadas por el trabajo y la ascendencia (CDWD), son las más afectadas. Se enfrentan a un mayor riesgo de transmisión de Covid, víctimas mortales, pérdida de medios de subsistencia y aumento de la violencia. En América Latina y el Caribe existen graves problemas de feminicidio, desigualdad de género y, sobre todo, obstáculos para que las

mujeres accedan a sus derechos. Siguen existiendo obstáculos al derecho de las mujeres a la tierra y la vivienda, y persisten las desigualdades en forma de segregación de género en la mano de obra y salarios más bajos por el trabajo.

Acceso a la vacuna y a la sanidad:

Durante el proceso de vacunación y acceso a los servicios sanitarios, las mujeres se enfrentaron a problemas de movilidad limitada para llegar a los centros sanitarios y a los lugares de vacunación, agravados por el control limitado sobre los recursos para acceder a ellos, incluida la falta de información sobre las vacunas y su seguridad. Las mujeres de Dalit del sur de Asia sufren discriminación en el acceso a las vacunas.

Las mujeres también constituyen el 70% de los trabajadores de la salud y los primeros en responder son mujeres que son más vulnerables al virus, pero apenas han estado a la par con sus homólogos masculinos en términos de remuneración y prioridades.

A pesar de la mejora de la situación mundial en materia de vacunación, África sigue estando mal vacunada, lo que es consecuencia directa del nacionalismo vacunal y la codicia farmacéutica respaldados por los países ricos. Mientras que el porcentaje de personas que recibieron al menos una dosis de la vacuna es del 71,8%, África tiene la tasa de vacunación más baja de todos los continentes, con sólo un 35,2% de la población que recibió una dosis de vacuna. Hay pruebas de que las mujeres de los países más pobres de África no reciben vacunas.

Recomendaciones:

  • Se necesitan medidas mucho más radicales y transformadoras para alcanzar los ODS en 2030
  • Acelerar la respuesta a la pandemia y extenderla a las comunidades más vulnerables, incluidas las zonas remotas de las provincias donde el acceso a las vacunas sigue siendo difícil, especialmente para las mujeres con discapacidad y otras comunidades marginadas.
  • Que los gobiernos tomen las medidas adecuadas para hacer frente a cualquier pandemia futura.
  • Es necesaria una exención completa de los ADPIC para la vacuna, las pruebas y el tratamiento Covid, a fin de que la comunidad mundial pueda luchar contra el virus.
  • El gobierno debe poner en marcha políticas de Cobertura Sanitaria Universal (CSU) a través de financiación pública que vaya más allá del modelo de seguros. La CSU debe contemplarse desde el ángulo del derecho a la salud, es decir, el derecho de cada persona a la salud independientemente de su capacidad de pago, de dónde se encuentre y de su identidad sociopolítica. Las mujeres deben estar en el centro de este modelo.
  • La inversión gubernamental en el sector sanitario debe ser de al menos el 5% del PIB a nivel nacional
  • Exigir un compromiso financiero a largo plazo, operativo y sostenible para la protección social, incluido el Fondo Mundial para la Protección Social, con el fin de lograr la protección social para todos en 2030. Esto debe incluir a todas las mujeres y basarse en la justicia social, la equidad y los enfoques basados en los derechos para la resiliencia de la comunidad.
  • Instar a los gobiernos a que rindan cuentas ante sus electores por el maltrato basado en el género: ¡no a la violencia contra las mujeres! Sensibilizar tanto a las mujeres como a los hombres sobre la importancia de la empatía mutua será fundamental para prevenir la violencia contra las mujeres y las niñas.
  • Todos los Estados, sin excepción, deben cumplir con sus compromisos de derechos humanos mediante la adopción e implementación de políticas, leyes, programas y presupuestos que se alineen con las convenciones internacionales, como la Declaración sobre los Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas, y los convenios, protocolos y garantías de seguridad social de la OIT relacionados con los trabajadores migrantes, los pueblos indígenas, la protección salarial, los trabajadores domésticos, la salud de los trabajadores  ,  y el piso de protección social.

En el Día Internacional de la Mujer 2023, el GCAP se insta a los gobiernos y las comunidades a trabajar juntos para poner fin a la violencia, la exclusión y la discriminación contra todas las mujeres y niñas y lograr la igualdad de género y la inclusión.

¡No dejemos a ninguna mujer atrás y #EmbraceEquity!
[1]https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2022/Goal–05/
[2]https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/621477/bp–survival–of–the–richest160123-en.pdf
[3]https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/621477/bp–survival–of–the–richest160123–en.pdf
[FRENCH]

Chers collègues,

Le 8 mars, nous célébrons la Journée internationale de la femme ! En tant que GCAP, nous avons préparé une déclaration sur la situation actuelle des femmes – en anglais, en espagnol et en français.

Voir ci-dessous.
Participer à la campagne sur les médias sociaux de GCAP le 8 mars – galvaniser les voix des femmes sur l’inégalité des sexes dans divers domaines. Vous pouvez utiliser le kit d’action sur les médias sociaux:
GCAP IWD 2023 Toolkit (English)
GCAP IWD 2023 Toolkit (Spanish)
GCAP IWD 2023 Toolkit (French)En toute solidarité,Ingo Ritz, directeur, et Divine Magno, chargée de communication

Déclaration de GCAP sur la Journée internationale de la Femme 2023
Mettre fin à la discrimination à l’égard des femmes, faire avancer le progrès pour tous – #EmbraceEquity


Les ODD et l’égalité des sexesLe rapport sur les ODD 2022 dresse un tableau sombre des progrès accomplis en ce qui concerne l’ODD 5 : « réaliser l’égalité des sexes et autonomiser toutes les femmes et les filles ». Les retombées sociales et économiques de la pandémie ont aggravé la situation déjà fragile des progrès en matière d’égalité des sexes. Dans plusieurs domaines, comme les soins non rémunérés et le travail domestique, comme la prise de décision en matière de santé sexuelle et reproductive, ou encore la budgétisation sensible au genre, nous sommes à la traîne. La violence à l’égard des femmes se poursuit sans relâche.Inégalités et pauvretéAlors qu’au cours de la dernière décennie, les 1 % les plus riches s’étaient emparés d’environ la moitié de toutes les nouvelles richesses, pendant la pandémie, ils se sont emparés de deux fois plus de richesses que le reste – l’augmentation des niveaux d’inégalité a été sans précédent ! De plus en plus de personnes ont été poussées dans des conditions d’extrême pauvreté, ce qui a aggravé la faim dans le monde. Pas moins de 198 millions de personnes ont été ajoutées, ce qui porte la catégorie des personnes extrêmement pauvres à 860 millions. Selon les résultats de la recherche, environ une personne sur dix dans le monde vit dans la faim. Si la situation générale de la population s’est détériorée, celle des femmes est la pire ! Le niveau d’insécurité alimentaire des femmes est beaucoup plus élevé que celui des hommes dans le monde.En ce qui concerne l’emploi, le rapport d’OXFAM intitulé « Survival of the Richest » indique que les femmes ont perdu 64 millions d’emplois dans le monde à cause de la pandémie. Et deux fois plus de jeunes femmes que de jeunes hommes ont perdu leur emploi pendant la pandémie. Il est bien connu que le caractère de l’emploi des femmes est marqué par des niveaux d’informalité beaucoup plus élevés, en particulier dans le sud du monde, ce qui les rend vulnérables au licenciement. Les travailleurs domestiques ont été les plus touchés par la pandémie.Les femmes appartenant aux groupes les plus discriminés et exclus, comme les femmes âgées, les communautés indigènes, les femmes et les filles handicapées, les communautés victimes de discrimination par le travail et l’ascendance (CDWD) sont les plus touchées. Elles ont été confrontées à un risque plus élevé de transmission du Covid, de décès, de perte de moyens de subsistance et de violence accrue. En Amérique latine et dans les Caraïbes, il existe de graves problèmes de féminicides, d’inégalités entre les sexes et, surtout, des obstacles à l’accès des femmes à leurs droits. Les obstacles au droit des femmes à la terre et au logement demeurent et les inégalités persistent sous la forme d’une ségrégation sexuelle dans la main-d’œuvre et de salaires inférieurs pour le travail.Accès aux vaccins et à la santé :Pendant le processus de vaccination et d’accès aux services de santé, les femmes ont été confrontées à des problèmes de mobilité limitée pour atteindre les établissements de santé et les sites de vaccination, exacerbés par le contrôle limité des ressources pour y accéder, y compris le manque d’informations sur les vaccins et leur sécurité. Les femmes dalits d’Asie du Sud sont victimes de discrimination en matière d’accès aux vaccins.Les femmes constituent également 70 % du personnel de santé et les premiers intervenants sont des femmes qui sont plus vulnérables au virus, mais elles n’ont guère été mises sur un pied d’égalité avec leurs homologues masculins en termes de rémunération et de priorités.Malgré l’amélioration de la situation mondiale en matière de vaccination, l’Afrique reste encore mal vaccinée, ce qui est la conséquence directe du nationalisme en matière de vaccins et de l’avidité des entreprises pharmaceutiques soutenues par les pays riches. Alors que le pourcentage de personnes ayant reçu au moins une dose de vaccin est de 71,8 %, l’Afrique a le taux de vaccination le plus bas de tous les continents, avec seulement 35,2 % de la population ayant reçu une dose de vaccin. Il est prouvé que les femmes des pays les plus pauvres d’Afrique n’ont pas accès aux vaccins.Recommandations :
  • Des mesures beaucoup plus radicales et transformatrices sont nécessaires pour atteindre les ODD d’ici 2030
  • Accélérer la réponse à la pandémie et l’étendre aux communautés les plus vulnérables – y compris dans les zones reculées des provinces où l’accès aux vaccins reste difficile, notamment pour les femmes handicapées et les autres communautés marginalisées.
  • Des mesures adéquates sont prises par les gouvernements pour mieux faire face à toute future pandémie.
  • Une dérogation complète aux ADPIC (TRIPS waiver) pour le vaccin, le test et le traitement Covid est nécessaire pour permettre à la communauté internationale de lutter contre le virus.
  • Le gouvernement devrait mettre en place des politiques de couverture sanitaire universelle (CSU) par le biais d’un financement public allant au-delà du modèle d’assurance. La CSU doit être vue sous l’angle du droit à la santé, c’est-à-dire le droit de chaque personne à la santé indépendamment de sa capacité de paiement, de l’endroit où elle se trouve et de son identité socio-politique. Les femmes doivent être au centre d’un tel modèle.
  • L’investissement du gouvernement dans le secteur de la santé doit être d’au moins 5% du PIB au niveau national.
  • Exiger un engagement financier à long terme, opérationnel et durable en faveur de la protection sociale, y compris un Fonds mondial pour la Protection sociale, afin de parvenir à une protection sociale pour tous en 2030. Celle-ci doit inclure toutes les femmes et être fondée sur la justice sociale, l’équité et les approches basées sur les droits pour la résilience des communautés.
  • Exhorter les gouvernements à être plus responsables vis-à-vis de leurs électeurs en cas de mauvais traitements fondés sur le genre – non à la violence contre les femmes ! La sensibilisation des femmes et des hommes à l’importance de l’empathie mutuelle contribuera à prévenir la violence contre les femmes et les filles.
  • Tous les États, sans exception, doivent respecter leurs engagements en matière de droits de l’homme en adoptant et en appliquant des politiques, des lois, des programmes et des budgets conformes aux conventions internationales, telles que la Déclaration des droits des peuples autochtones, et aux conventions, protocoles et garanties de sécurité sociale de l’OIT relatifs aux travailleurs migrants, aux peuples autochtones, à la protection des salaires, aux travailleurs domestiques, à la santé des travailleurs et au socle de protection sociale.

À l’occasion de la Journée internationale de la femme 2023, GCAP encourage les gouvernements et les communautés à travailler ensemble pour mettre fin à la violence, à l’exclusion et à la discrimination à l’égard de toutes les femmes et les filles, et à réaliser l’égalité des sexes et l’inclusion.Ne laissez aucune femme derrière et #EmbraceEquity !
[1]https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2022/Goal–05/
[2]https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/621477/bp–survival–of–the–richest160123-en.pdf
[3]https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/621477/bp–survival–of–the–richest160123–en.pdf

INVITATION: Webinar – COVID Vaccines, Universal Health Coverage & The Pandemic Treaty

INVITATION: Webinar – COVID Vaccines, Universal Health Coverage & The Pandemic Treaty

GCAP Global organised a webinar to discuss COVID vaccines, Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and The Pandemic Treaty on March 2 (Thursday), 12.30 PM – 2 PM GMT. (See your country time here.)

Register here to participate: http://bit.ly/3Sx0JbX

Interpretation will be available in French, Spanish and Hindi.

GCAP Global and National Coalitions’ work on on the issue of vaccines in the last two years lead to an understanding that it is also important to engage in the topic of Universal Health Coverage and undertake measures to stay better prepared to face future pandemics.

Speakers will be covering the following topics, to be followed by a discussion.

  1. Global Situation on Covid vaccination, test and treatment: Maaza Seyoum, People’s Vaccine Alliance (PVA)
  2. Why is Universal Health Coverage a necessity now?:Jennifer Ho,  APCASO
  3. Understanding The Pandemic Treaty:Gopakumar, Third World Network

See you there!

Permalink: https://gcap.global/news/invitation-webinar-covid-vaccines-universal-health-coverage-the-pandemic-treaty/

GCAP Asia: Webinar on Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic & Vaccine Equality in Asia (8 December 2022)

 

Last December 8, 2022,  GCAP-SAAPE and PVA Asia organised a webinar on the Impact of Covid 19 and Vaccine Inequality in Asia. Watch the event again here.

In the online event,  position papers collectively done by GCAP, South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE) and the people’s Vaccine Alliance (PVA) Asia were presented. These captured the impact of the COVID pandemic on Asian countries, how vaccination took place in their context, what are the issues surrounding it and what the status of vaccination is in marginalised communities. People’s Vaccine Alliance (PVA) Asia discussed the global and regional contributions we’ve had so far, and what we will be prioritizing this 2023. We will be sharing these position papers soon through GCAP online platforms.

 

GCAP has been especially active in mobilising for vaccine equality the last two years . As shared in the webinar, this video on Last Mile Vaccination in Odisha, India shows how powerful the collaboration between Government and NGOs is when we work together to reach far-flung areas to reach indigenous communities. Efforts such as these must be replicated, in order to make sure we reach the most vulnerable families and individuals.

We remain committed to vaccine equality in order to be better prepared for the next health crisis, fix our rules for those, and always prioritize universal health coverage before profit.

Permalink: https://gcap.global/news/gcap-asia-webinar-on-impact-of-covid-19-pandemic-vaccine-equality-in-asia-8-december-2022/

December 2022 Newsletter: GCAP at COP27 & Vaccine Inequality in Asia

GCAP at COP27 &
Vaccine Inequality in Asia

Dear Colleagues,

At the COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, an important step for climate justice was achieved – the Loss and Damage fund was agreed! In other areas like mitigation almost no progress was achieved, which is a real disaster in the fight against Climate Change.

GCAP participated in the COP with representatives from Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, Brazil,  Greece and Portugal – including two Global Council members. They participated in negotiations surrounding policies, and to ensure that we share inputs from the most affected communities.

The Delegation of Quilombolas from Brazil was the biggest with eight members who participated the first time in a climate COP. Quilombolas are former slaves who are still discriminated in terms of income, access to land, education and employment. In public services, including jobs, they are often discriminated and attacked because of their skin color and descent.

The GCAP Colleagues organised a joint press conference in the COP27 press centre to speak about the perspectives of the Global South and of marginalised groups on the ongoing negotiations. Directly after the COP, the GCAP Climate Justice Working Group organised an online event discussing the main outcomes of the conference.

The GCAP Press Conference at the COP27 highlighted voices from the Global South: From left: Esso Pedessi, GCAP Togo, Constantinos Machairas, GCAP Greece and Kenneth Amoateng, GCAP Ghana.

 

 

GCAP Colleagues from Africa participated in demonstrations to call for an end to the use of fossil fuels in Africa which has left 600 million Africans without access to energy.

 

From Climate Justice to Vaccine Justice: As we approach the end of 2022, it’s already the third year  of the COVID-19 pandemic. Much progress has been made, but the pandemic is far from over – especially for Africa where only 25% of the population is fully vaccinated and especially for marginalised communities.

A woman in a rural community in Odisha receives the COVID-19 vaccine from a health worker. Low literacy, superstition and language barrier play a key role in contributing to vaccine hesitancy in the district.

GCAP has been especially active in mobilising for vaccine equality  the last two years. This was partly successful, as seen in this video on Last Mile Vaccination in Odisha, India where Government and NGOs work together to reach far-flung areas to reach  indigenous communities. Efforts such as these must be replicated, in order to make sure we reach the most vulnerable communities.

GCAP and national coalitions of GCAP in Asia together with People’s Vaccine Asia, published the Faces of Inequality Report: Impact of COVID-19 and Vaccine Inequality in Asia. This report, and national position papers on the impact of COVID-19 was shared in a webinar organised by GCAP Asia on 8 December 2022. People’s Vaccine Alliance (PVA) Asia discussed the global and regional contributions we’ve had so far, and what we will be prioritizing next year. We remain committed to vaccine equality, also in order to be better prepared for the next health crisis, fix our rules for those, and always prioritize universal health coverage before profit.

In the Philippines, civilians avail of COVID-19 vaccines – persons with co-morbidities such as those with physical disabilities get priority.

 

2022 was a year dominated by many challenges – the war in the Ukraine, the cost-of-living crisis and resulting higher numbers of people living in poverty and suffering under violence and hunger. As we approach the new year, let’s continue to fight together for global solidarity and global justice.

Wishing you a good end of the year and all of us a more peaceful year 2023!

Ingo Ritz
GCAP Director

###

FRENCH VERSION

Chers collègues,

Lors de la COP27 à Sharm El Sheikh, en Égypte, une étape importante pour la justice climatique a été franchie : le fonds pour les pertes et pertes et dommages a été adopté ! Dans d’autres domaines, presque aucun progrès n’a été réalisé, ce qui est un véritable désastre dans la lutte contre le changement climatique.
GCAP a participé à la COP avec des représentants du Ghana, du Nigeria, du Togo, du Brésil, de la Grèce et du Portugal – y compris deux membres du Conseil de GCAP. Ils ont participé aux négociations concernant les politiques, et se sont assurés de transmettre les revendications des communautés les plus affectées.

La délégation des Quilombolas du Brésil était la plus importante avec huit membres qui ont participé pour la première fois à une COP sur le climat. Les Quilombolas sont d’anciens esclaves qui sont toujours victimes de discrimination en termes de revenus, d’accès à la terre, d’éducation et d’emploi. Dans les services publics, y compris les emplois, ils sont souvent discriminés et attaqués en raison de leur couleur de peau et de leur ascendance.

Les collègues de GCAP ont organisé une conférence de presse dans le centre de presse de la COP27 afin de présenter les perspectives du Sud et des groupes marginalisés sur les négociations en cours. Directement après la COP, le groupe de travail Justice climatique de GCAP a organisé un événement en ligne pour discuter des principaux résultats de la conférence.

La conférence de presse de GCAP lors de la COP27 a mis en lumière les voix du Sud : De gauche à droite : Esso Pedessi, GCAP Togo, Constantinos Machairas, GCAP Grèce et Kenneth Amoateng, GCAP Ghana.

 

Des collègues GCAP d’Afrique ont participé à des manifestations pour demander la fin de l’utilisation des combustibles fossiles en Afrique qui a affecté 600 millions d’Africains sans accès à l’énergie.

De la justice climatique à la justice vaccinale :Alors que nous approchons de la fin de l’année 2022, c’est déjà la troisième année de la pandémie de COVID-19. De nombreux progrès ont été réalisés, mais la pandémie est loin d’être terminée – surtout en l’Afrique, où seulement 25% de la population est entièrement vaccinée et surtout pour les communautés marginalisées.

Une femme dans une communauté rurale d’Odisha reçoit le vaccin COVID-19 d’un agent de santé. Le faible niveau d’alphabétisation, la superstition et la barrière linguistique jouent un rôle clé dans l’hésitation à se faire vacciner dans le district.

GCAP a été particulièrement actif dans la mobilisation pour l’égalité d’accès aux vaccins ces deux dernières années. Cette action a été en partie couronnée de succès, comme le montre cette vidéo sur la « vaccination du dernier kilomètre » à Odisha, en Inde, où le gouvernement et les ONG travaillent ensemble pour atteindre les communautés indigènes dans des zones éloignées. Des efforts tels que ceux-ci doivent être reproduits, afin de s’assurer que nous atteignons les communautés les plus vulnérables.

GCAP et les coalitions nationales de GCAP en Asie, en collaboration avec People’s Vaccine Asia, ont publié le rapport « Faces of Inequality : l’impact de la COVID-19 et l’inégalité face aux vaccins en Asie ». Le rapport a été présenté lors d’un webinaire organisé par GCAP Asie le 8 décembre 2022. People’s Vaccine Alliance (PVA) Asia a discuté de nos contributions mondiales et régionales dans ce dossier, et de nos priorités pour l’année prochaine. Nous restons engagés en faveur de l’égalité d’accès aux vaccins, également afin d’être mieux préparés à la prochaine crise sanitaire et de toujours donner la priorité à la couverture sanitaire universelle, avant le profit.

Aux Philippines, des civils se font vacciner contre le COVID-19 – les personnes souffrant de comorbidités, comme les handicapés physiques, sont prioritaires.

2022 a été une année dominée par de nombreux défis – la guerre en Ukraine, la crise du coût de la vie et le nombre croissant de personnes vivant dans la pauvreté et souffrant de la violence et de la faim qui en résulte. En tant que membres de la société civile, il y a beaucoup de travail à faire pour atteindre davantage de communautés. À l’approche de la nouvelle année, continuons à lutter ensemble pour la solidarité et la justice mondiales.

Je vous souhaite une bonne fin d’année et à nous tous une année 2023 plus pacifique !

Ingo Ritz
Directeur de GCAP
###

 

SPANISH VERSION

Estimados compañeros,

En la COP27 de Sharm El Sheikh, Egipto, se dio un paso importante para la justicia climática: ¡se acordó el fondo para pérdidas y daños! En otras áreas como la mitigación casi no se logró ningún progreso, lo que es un verdadero desastre en la lucha contra el Cambio Climático.

El GCAP participó en la COP con representantes de Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, Brasil, Grecia y Portugal, incluidos dos miembros del Consejo Mundial. Participaron en las negociaciones en torno a las políticas, y para garantizar que compartimos las aportaciones de las comunidades más afectadas.

La delegación de quilombolas de Brasil fue la más numerosa, con ocho miembros que participaron por primera vez en una COP sobre el clima. Los quilombolas son antiguos esclavos que siguen siendo discriminados en términos de ingresos, acceso a la tierra, educación y empleo. En los servicios públicos, incluidos los puestos de trabajo, suelen ser discriminados y agredidos por el color de su piel y su ascendencia.

Los colegas del GCAP organizaron una rueda de prensa conjunta en el centro de prensa de la COP27 para hablar de las perspectivas del Sur Global y de los grupos marginados sobre las negociaciones en curso. Inmediatamente después de la COP, el Grupo de Trabajo sobre Justicia Climática del GCAP organizó un evento en línea en el que se debatieron los principales resultados de la conferencia.

La rueda de prensa del GCAP en la COP27 destacó las voces del Sur Global: De izquierda a derecha: Esso Pedessi, GCAP Togo, Constantinos Machairas, GCAP Grecia y Kenneth Amoateng, GCAP Ghana

 

Compañeros del GCAP de África participaron en manifestaciones para pedir el fin del uso de combustibles fósiles en África, que ha afectado a 600 millones de africanos sin acceso a la energía.

 

De la justicia climática a la justicia de las vacunas: A medida que nos acercamos al final de 2022, ya es el tercer año de la pandemia COVID-19. Se ha avanzado mucho, pero la pandemia está lejos de haber terminado, especialmente para África, donde sólo el 25% de la población está totalmente vacunada, y especialmente para las comunidades marginadas.

Una mujer de una comunidad rural de Odisha recibe la vacuna COVID-19 de manos de un trabajador sanitario. El bajo nivel de alfabetización, la superstición y la barrera lingüística son factores clave que contribuyen a las dudas sobre la vacunación en el distrito.

 

En los dos últimos años, el GCAP se ha mostrado especialmente activo en la movilización por la igualdad de las vacunas. En parte con éxito, como puede verse en este vídeo sobre la vacunación de última milla en Odisha (India), donde el Gobierno y las ONG colaboran para llegar a las comunidades indígenas de zonas remotas. Esfuerzos como éste deben repetirse para asegurarnos de que llegamos a las comunidades más vulnerables.

El GCAP y las coaliciones nacionales del GCAP en Asia, junto con People’s Vaccine Asia, publicaron el informe Faces of Inequality Report: Impact of COVID-19 and Vaccine Inequality in Asia. El informe se presentó en un seminario web organizado por GCAP Asia el 8 de diciembre de 2022. People’s Vaccine Alliance (PVA) Asia discutió las contribuciones globales y regionales que hemos tenido hasta ahora, y lo que vamos a priorizar el próximo año. Seguimos comprometidos con la igualdad de las vacunas, también para estar mejor preparados para la próxima crisis sanitaria, fijar nuestras normas para ellas y priorizar siempre la cobertura sanitaria universal antes que el beneficio.

En Filipinas, los civiles se benefician de las vacunas COVID-19: las personas con comorbilidades, como las personas con discapacidades físicas, tienen prioridad.

2022 fue un año dominado por muchos retos: la guerra en Ucrania, la crisis del coste de la vida y el consiguiente aumento del número de personas que viven en la pobreza y sufren violencia y hambre. Como miembros de la sociedad civil, queda mucho trabajo por hacer para llegar a más comunidades. A medida que nos acercamos al nuevo año, sigamos luchando juntos por la solidaridad mundial y la justicia global.

Les deseo un buen fin de año y a todos nosotros un año 2023 más pacífico.

Ingo Ritz
Director del GCAP

Permalink: https://gcap.global/news/december-2022-newsletter-gcap-at-cop27-vaccine-inequality-in-asia/

GCAP and members join more than 150 civil society orgs and experts urging WTO to ensure inclusive COVID-19 tests & treatments

 

Dear Dr Okonjo-Iweala,

RE: The urgent need to agree to expand the WTO June 2022 Decision on COVID-19 vaccines to cover tests and therapeutics.

We are a global alliance of more than 160 organizations and experts from across the world, writing today to urge you to act on behalf of the interests of the hundreds of millions of people across the developing world facing COVID-19 without access to treatments or even tests. We are very concerned about the lack of Decision at the TRIPS Council meeting on the 6th of December and the proposed delay on this urgent matter until June 2023. Each day of delay means more infections, more deaths, and greater difficulties for the global economic recovery.

The WTO has the power and opportunity to help developing countries control the virus by expanding the June 2022 Decision on vaccine intellectual property to cover tests and therapeutics by the 17th December 2022 deadline agreed by WTO member countries.

Read the full letter from civil society organisations & experts urgently calling for Dr. Okonio-Iweala to act on this urgent matter here, signed by the following:

The People’s Vaccine Alliance

  1. AbibiNsroma Foundation
  2. Access to Medicines Ireland
  3. ActionAid
  4. ActionAid International
  5. Africa Japan Forum
  6. African Alliance
  7. Ahadi Achievers Empowerment CBO, Ahadi Achievers Empowerment CBO
  8. Alan Rossi Silva, Staff Attorney at the Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association (ABIA)
  9. Amira Herdoiza , Executive Director Kimirina
  10. Amnesty International
  11. Anne Marie Collins, EqualHealth
  12. Annette Gaudino, Activist
  13. Annie Namala, Convener, Wada Na Todo Abhiyan
  14. APCASO
  15. Asia Russell, Executive Director, Health Global Access Project (Health GAP)
  16. Asociación de Mujeres Gente Nueva (AMUGEN)
  17. Asociación de mujeres VIH Santa Micaela
  18. Beckie Malay, PRRM
  19. BMS World Mission
  20. Cadre de concertation des ONG et Associations actives en éducation de base au Burkina Faso
  21. Catherine Dimitroulias, President of the Association of Women of Southern Europe AFEM
  22. Centre for Health Equity Zimbabwe
  23. César Artiga, Presidente de Asociación Generaciones de Paz (ASDEPAZ)
  24. CIEDUR
  25. Citizens Trade Campaign
  26. Civil Society SDGs Campaign GCAP Zambia
  27. Coalition for People’s Right to Health
  28. Council for NGOs in Malawi (CONGOMA)
  29. Diarmaid McDonald, Director, Just Treatment
  30. Dini Andriani , Manager Program
  31. Diverse Voices and Action (DIVA) for Equality
  32. Dr Marlise Richter, Researcher
  33. Dr Patricia Ranald, Convener, Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network
  34. Dr Rasigan Maharajh, Chief Director of Institute for Economic Research on Innovation
  35. Dr Tinashe Goronga, Center for Health Equity Zimbabwe
  36. Dr Jonathan Nkalubo, Equal Health – Uganda Chapter
  37. EL GADDARI Abdelhalim, Programs director
  38. Empower India
  39. Engr(Dr.) Janet Adeyemi, National President at Women in Mining Nigeria
  40. EQUALHEALTH
  41. EqualHealth Global Campaign Against Racism
  42. GCAP Ghana
  43. GCAP Italy
  44. GCAP Sri Lanka-SDG Networks, Secretary General
  45. George Carter, Founder/Director, Foundation for Integrative AIDS Research (FIAR)
  46. Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP)
  47. Global Humanitarian Progress Corporation GHP Corp
  48. Global Humanitarian Progress GHP Corp, Luz Marina Umbasia
  49. Global Justice Now
  50. Graham Dutfield, Professor of International Governance, University of Leeds
  51. Halley Movement Coalition, Director
  52. Hani Serag, Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch
  53. Harry Prabowo, Asia Pacific Network of People living with HIV (APN+)
  54. Health Global Access Project
  55. Human Rights Watch
  56. Indonesia AIDS Coalition
  57. Initiative for Social and Economic Rights
  58. INSAF Delhi
  59. International Movement for Advancement of Education Culture Social & Economic Development (IMAECSED)
  60. International Youth Alliance for Peace Guarantee Limited
  61. Jahid Hossain Khan, Grameen Development Society (GDS)
  62. Javier Pablo Anamaria , Referente nacional Alterno de ITPC LATCA
  63. Jesuit Justice and Ecology Network – Africa (JENA)
  64. Judy Taguiwalo, Citizens’ Urgent Response to End COVID-19, Spokepersoj Justice is Global
  65. Karimi Kinoti, Interim Policy & Campaigns Director, Christian Aid
  66. Karin Slowing Umaña, Coordinadora de Investigación LaboratorioDeDatosGT
  67. Keikantse Phele , Keikantse Phele
  68. KHANA/Cambodia, Executive Director
  69. Kristine Yakhama , Africa Diabetes and Hypertension Association Kenya
  70. Labila Sumayah Musoke, Program Officer at the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights Lankaplus Organization
  71. Lídice López, corresponsales Clave, Corresponsales Clave
  72. Lois Chingandu, Acting Executive Director, Frontline AIDS
  73. LUTTE NATIONALE CONTRE LA PAUVRETE « LUNACOP/GCAP-RDC »
  74. Luz Marina Umbasia, GHP Corp
  75. Magatte MBODJ, Executive Director
  76. Manuel Machado, Misión Salud
  77. Marije Versteeg, Senior Global Health Advocate at Wemos
  78. Mario Gomez, Executive Director, International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Sri Lanka
  79. Marium Amjad Khan, Program Manager at AwazCDS-Pakistan
  80. Martin Drewry, CEO of Health Poverty Action
  81. Michael Switow, Founder & Executive Committee member, ONE (SINGAPORE)
  82. Mrs Edna Dafe , Projext Director., Women’s Board-ECS
  83. Mtra María Angela Elías Marroquín, Universidad de El Salvador
  84. Namusobya Salima, Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER)
  85. National Association of Non Governmental Organisations,
  86. National Campaign for Sustainable Development Nepal
  87. National Fisheries Solidarity Movement [NAFSO]
  88. Network Lobby for Catholic Social Justice
  89. Networking Community HIV and AIDS Southern Africa, Executive Director
  90. NGO Federation Of Nepal
  91. Nigeria Network of NGOs
  92. NILUFAR BANU PhD, Executive Director. Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad
  93. Noakhali Rural Development Society (NRDS)
  94. Noé Ivan Flores Sosa , Asociación Hondureña Contra la Tuberculosis
  95. Observatori DESC
  96. Olayinka Joseph ADEBAJO, Executive Director at One Voice Initiative For Women and Children Emancipation
  97. ONE (Singapore)
  98. Oumar SOW, National coordinator Gcap- Sénégal
  99. Oxfam
  100. Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum,
  101. Partners In Health,
  102. Pauline Muchina, American Friends Service Committee
  103. People’s Vaccine Alliance Bangladesh
  104. People’s Vaccine Alliance – Asia
  105. People’s Vaccine Alliance Africa
  106. Peter Owiti , Global Covid Community Board
  107. Philip Kalio, Executive Director at Support Initiative for Sustainable Development (SISDEV)
  108. Physicians for Human Rights
  109. PODER Project on Organization, Development, Education and Research
  110. Prof P. Vassie Naidoo, University of KwaZulu-Natal [ People’s Vaccine Alliance, Professor from the University of KwaZulu Natal
  111. Brook K. Baker, Northeastern U. School of Law
  112. Dr. Jorge Bermudez, MD, DSc, Senior Researcher in Public Health, National School of Public Health/Fiocruz, Brazil
  113. Project on Organizing, Development, Education, and Research (PODER)
  114. Ayotunde Okelana , Executive Director/Cleannation Foundation
  115. Public Citizen
  116. Public Eye
  117. Raditya, Executive Director at Rumah Cemara
  118. Rajesh Didiya, National TB network
  119. Rajiv Dua, Chief Executive
  120. Ratikant Behera, FSDCA (Foundation for Sustainable Development and Climate Action)
  121. Raz Mohammad Dalili, Executive Advisor Sanayee Development Organization SDO
  122. Reshma Shakya, Advocacy and Communication Officer
  123. Rethink Trade, Director
  124. Richard Stern , Independent
  125. Right to Health Action, Policy team member at Right to Health Action
  126. Rights Initiative
  127. RISE TO INSPIRE AFRICA INITIATIVE
  128. Roman Rafael Vega Romero, People´s Health Movement – PHM
  129. Ronald Céspedes Barriga, Presidente de la Red Latinoamericana GayLatino
  130. Rossella Miccio, President of EMERGENCY
  131. Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Professor of International Affairs, The New School
  132. Salud por Derecho
  133. Sarojini N, Founder, Sama Resource Group for Women and Health
  134. Sbongile Nkosi, Co-Executive Director
  135. SEATINI – South Africa
  136. Serendipity Healthcare Foundation
  137. Sharad Onta, Country Coordinator, People’s Health Movement Nepal
  138. Shihab Quader, Head of International Projects at Yunus Centre
  139. Shirin Syed, Research Fellow, American University Washington College of Law
  140. Soe Naing, Executive Director, Alliance Myanmar
  141. South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication(SAAPE)
  142. Steve Lambert, Co-founder and Co-Director at the Center for Artistic Activism
  143. STOPAIDS
  144. SUNFO-Peoples Vaccine campaign, Director General
  145. Suruwat, Executive director
  146. Terence Dias, Admin Officer of Noakhali Rural Development Society (NRDS)
  147. The Rock of Hope Eswatin
  148. Trade Justice Education Fund
  149. Tumukunde Initiative Rwanda
  150. Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM)
  151. Universities Allied for Essential Medicines UK
  152. URUGUAIAN Network PLHiV REDLAC
  153. Vaccine Advocacy Resource Group, Vaccine Advocacy Resource Group
  154. Vanessa Japtha, Advocacy Manager
  155. Vinayaraj V K, Dr
  156. Wada Na Todo Abhiyan
  157. War on Want
  158. Winnie Byanyima, UNAIDS
  159. Zia ur Rehman , AwazCDS-Pakistan

Permalink: https://gcap.global/news/gcap-joins-more-than-150-civil-society-orgs-and-experts-urging-wto-to-ensure-inclusive-covid-19-tests-treatments/

Faces of Inequality Report 2022: Impact of COVID-19 & Vaccine Inequality in Asia

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed various forms of inequalities – which existed even before – in a much harsher way. This year’s Faces of Inequality Report focuses on how it has impacted the most vulnerable communities in Asia because of our failing systems (and those leading them) in the world’s political, financial, economic, social and public health structures.

In this report, we share stories from Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Cambodia, the Philippines, and from the Dalit (also termed as the Community discriminated by work and descent-CDWD) groups in South Asian countries. Download and read the full report HERE.

The is part of the global Faces of Inequality Campaign which aims to end inequalities in all its different forms – gender, income, wealth, geographical, environmental, abilities, justice, ethnic, et al. So many of us have stories to tell that are not being heard.  Together we are supporting people in their struggles for justice and bringing people and organisations together to challenge the institutions and processes that perpetuate poverty and inequalities across the world.

Follow our social media accounts for more as we share more stories of on-ground experiences as we work towards global justice for all!

Permalink: https://gcap.global/news/faces-of-inequality-report-2022-impact-of-covid-19-vaccine-inequality-in-asia/

Live from Egypt: GCAP COP 27 Press Conference on Saturday 12.11.2022 11:00 GMT / 16:30 IST/ 12:00 CET / 06:00 ET

 

Join us live on the GCAP Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/GlobalCalltoActionAgainstPoverty/

Permalink: https://gcap.global/news/live-from-egypt-gcap-cop-27-press-conference-on-saturday-12-11-2022-1100-gmt-1630-ist-1200-cet-0600-et/

GCAP Statement on The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (17 October 2022)

GCAP Statement for 17 October 2022:

The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

Nearly three years have passed since COVID-19 first surfaced, upending communities and taking the lives of more than 6.5 million people. In the rich corners of the world, life has largely returned to normalcy. But elsewhere, global and national systems are failing communities, further pushing people to the margins and making our planet uninhabitable. All the while, elite private interests have hugely profited.

Rising food and energy prices, loss of livelihoods and critical gaps in healthcare have been exacerbated by austerity programmes, the lack of universal social protection, wars, violence and the deterioration of civic space in many parts of the world, especially in developing countries. Now 1.3 billion people live in abject, multidimensional and preventable poverty with almost half of them children and youth. People are immensely suffering.

Nowhere is the moral failure of the world’s leaders more evident than in the international community’s approach to public health. While nearly 13 billion COVID-19 vaccinations have been administered so far— enough to provide a full regimen to 80 percent of the world’s population — fewer than 1 in 4 people in low-income countries have received a single dose.

War, violence and repression violate the rights of more than 1 billion children annually, disproportionately girls — from Afghanistan to Yemen, while the war in Ukraine alone has displaced an estimated 15 million people, the largest number since World War II.

The theme of the International Day for Eradication of Poverty 2022, “Dignity For All in Practice » recognises dignity as the cornerstone of all fundamental rights and calls for committing together for social justice, peace, and the planet.

GCAP organised National People’s Assemblies in 27 countries and 4 regions during the Global Week of Action Act4SDGs from 16 to 25 September 2022. These mobilisations aimed at gathering communities’ concerns and agree on collective actions to take on the rising  inequalities and worsening poverty situations. These efforts culminated in a virtual Global People’s Assembly that was held from September 20 to September 22, where people’s representatives and civil society shared concerns and demands were brought together in the declaration called Global Justice to Achieve SDGs – Sustainable Equality for All. Here the key demands:

  1. Strengthen Public Health and People’s Vaccine – Establish a global roadmap for vaccine equality, which goes beyond the June 2022 action of the WTO Ministerial Conference and includes a complete TRIPS waiver covering diagnostic tests, treatments and COVID-19 vaccines plus the adoption of the pandemic treaty proposed by the WHO.
  2. Social Protection – Invest and recommit to achieve SDG 1.3 and act now to ensure progressive realization of the right to Universal Social Protection for all by 2030
  3. Civic Space and Human Rights – Honour, uphold and respect human rights, civic space and protections for civil society activists and environmental defenders.
  4. Gender Justice – Take a human rights-based and gender transformative approach to the implementation of all aspects of the 2030 Agenda and the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its related crises.
  5. Climate and Environment Justice – Meet and exceed the Paris Climate Accords. All countries must take immediate steps to reduce their emissions commensurate with the Paris Agreement Goal of limiting global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees and in proportion to their historical and current emissions.
  6. Debt Justice – Unconditional cancellation of public external debt payments by all lenders – bilateral, multilateral and private lenders – for all countries in need in the face of the health, economic and climate crisis, for at least the next four years, as an immediate step, followed by a clear programme for the unconditional cancellation of unsustainable and illegitimate outstanding debt.
  7. Economic Justice – Convene a fourth Financing for Development Conference – FfD4 to bring democratic accountability to global finance.
  8. Pathways to Peace – Member States to cooperate with the UN to bring the 32 ongoing wars to an end – including an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine – and free communities from fear, insecurity and violence.
  9. UN Reform – Make global institutions more democratic, representative and inclusive by limiting the use of the veto in the UN Security Council and ensuring civil society’s right to meaningful participation, based on the best practices of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board and the International Labour Organization, which provide effective, transparent and formal mechanisms for inclusion.

Read the full Declaration of the Global People’s Assembly 2022 HERE.

Download this statement in ENGLISH, FRENCH and SPANISH.

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Déclaration du GCAP pour le 17 octobre 2022:

La Journée internationale pour l’élimination de la pauvreté

Près de trois ans se sont écoulés depuis que le COVID-19 est apparu, bouleversant les communautés et prenant la vie de plus de 6,5 millions de personnes. Dans les régions riches du monde, la vie est largement revenue à la normale. Mais ailleurs, les systèmes mondiaux et nationaux font défaut aux communautés, poussant encore plus les gens vers la marge et rendant notre planète inhabitable. Pendant ce temps, les intérêts privés de l’élite en ont largement profité.

La hausse des prix des denrées alimentaires et de l’énergie, la perte des moyens de subsistance et les graves lacunes en matière de soins de santé ont été exacerbées par les programmes d’austérité, l’absence de protection sociale universelle, les guerres, la violence et la détérioration de l’espace civique dans de nombreuses régions du monde, notamment dans les pays en développement. Aujourd’hui, 1,3 milliard de personnes vivent dans une pauvreté abjecte, multidimensionnelle et évitable; près de la moitié sont des enfants et des jeunes. Les gens souffrent énormément.

L’échec moral des dirigeants du monde est particulièrement visible dans l’approche de la communauté internationale en matière de santé publique. Alors que près de 13 milliards de vaccins COVID-19 ont été administrés jusqu’à présent – suffisamment pour fournir un vaccination complète à 80 % de la population mondiale – moins d’une personne sur quatre dans les pays à faible revenu a reçu une seule dose.

La guerre, la violence et la répression violent les droits de plus d’un milliard d’enfants chaque année, dont un nombre disproportionné de filles – de l’Afghanistan au Yémen. Laguerre en Ukraine a, à elle seule, déplacé environ 15 millions de personnes – le plus grand nombre depuis la Seconde Guerre mondiale.

Le thème de la Journée internationale pour l’élimination de la pauvreté 2022, « La dignité pour tous en pratique », reconnaît la dignité comme la pierre angulaire de tous les droits fondamentaux et appelle à s’engager ensemble pour la justice sociale, la paix et la planète.

GCAP a organisé des Assemblées Populaires Nationales dans 27 pays et 4 régions pendant la Semaine Mondiale d’Action Act4SDGs du 16 au 25 septembre 2022. Ces mobilisations visaient à recueillir les préoccupations des communautés et à convenir d’actions collectives pour faire face à la montée des inégalités et à l’aggravation des situations de pauvreté. Ces efforts ont abouti à une Assemblée populaire mondiale virtuelle qui s’est tenue du 20 au 22 septembre, où les représentants du peuple et de la société civile ont partagé leurs préoccupations et leurs demandes dans une déclaration intitulée « Une justice mondiale pour atteindre les ODD – l’égalité durable pour tous ». Voici les principales demandes :

  1. renforcer la santé publique et la vaccination des populations – établir une feuille de route mondiale pour l’égalité d’accès aux vaccins, qui va au-delà de l’action de juin 2022 de la conférence ministérielle de l’OMC et qui comprend une dérogation complète aux ADPIC couvrant les tests de diagnostic, les traitements et les vaccins COVID-19, ainsi que l’adoption du traité sur les pandémies proposé par l’OMS.
  2. Protection sociale – Investir et s’engager à nouveau à atteindre l’ODD 1.3 et agir maintenant pour assurer la réalisation progressive du droit à la protection sociale universelle pour tous d’ici 2030.
  3. Espace civique et droits de l’homme – Honorer, défendre et respecter les droits de l’homme et l’espace civique et protéger les activistes de la société civile et les défenseurs de l’environnement.
  4. Justice de genre – Adopter une approche fondée sur les droits de l’homme en matière de genre pour la mise en œuvre de tous les aspects de l’Agenda 2030 ainsi que pour la réponse à la pandémie de COVID-19 et aux crises connexes.
  5. Justice climatique et environnementale – Respecter et dépasser les accords de Paris sur le climat. Tous les pays doivent prendre des mesures immédiates pour réduire leurs émissions en fonction de l’objectif de l’accord de Paris, à savoir limiter le réchauffement de la planète à 1,5 degré maximum, et proportionnellement à leurs émissions historiques et actuelles.
  6. Justice en matière de dette – Annulation inconditionnelle des paiements de la dette extérieure publique par tous les prêteurs – bilatéraux, multilatéraux et privés – pour tous les pays dans le besoin face à la crise sanitaire, économique et climatique, pour au moins les quatre prochaines années, comme mesure immédiate, suivie d’un programme clair d’annulation inconditionnelle de l’encours de la dette insoutenable et illégitime.
  7. Justice économique – Convoquer une quatrième conférence sur le financement du développement (FfD4) afin de rendre la finance mondiale démocratiquement responsable.
  8. Les chemins de la paix – Les États membres doivent coopérer avec les Nations unies pour mettre fin aux 32 guerres en cours – y compris un cessez-le-feu immédiat et le retrait des forces russes d’Ukraine – et libérer les communautés de la peur, de l’insécurité et de la violence.
  9. Réforme de l’ONU – Rendre les institutions mondiales plus démocratiques, plus représentatives et plus inclusives en limitant l’utilisation du veto au Conseil de Sécurité de l’ONU et en garantissant le droit de la société civile à une participation significative, sur la base des meilleures pratiques du Conseil de coordination du programme de l’ONUSIDA et de l’Organisation internationale du travail, qui fournissent des mécanismes d’inclusion efficaces, transparents et formels.

Lisez la déclaration complète : ICI

Téléchargez cette déclaration en ANGLAIS, FRANÇAIS et ESPAGNOL.

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Declaración del GCAP del 17 de octubre de 2022 :

Día Internacional para la Erradicación de la Pobreza

Han pasado casi tres años desde que el COVID-19 salió a la luz por primera vez, trastornando comunidades y cobrándose la vida de más de 6,5 millones de personas. En los rincones ricos del mundo, la vida ha vuelto en gran medida a la normalidad. Pero en otros lugares, los sistemas globales y nacionales están fallando a las comunidades, empujando a la gente a los márgenes y haciendo que nuestro planeta sea inhabitable. Mientras tanto, los intereses privados de la élite se han beneficiado enormemente.

El aumento de los precios de los alimentos y la energía, la pérdida de medios de subsistencia y las graves deficiencias en materia de atención sanitaria se han visto agravadas por los programas de austeridad, la falta de protección social universal, las guerras, la violencia y el deterioro del espacio cívico en muchas partes del mundo, especialmente en los países en desarrollo. En la actualidad, 1.300 millones de personas viven en una pobreza abyecta, multidimensional y evitable, y casi la mitad de  ellos son niños y jóvenes. La gente sufre enormemente.

En ningún lugar es más evidente el fracaso moral de los líderes mundiales en el enfoque de la comunidad internacional en materia de salud pública. Si bien hasta ahora se han administrado casi 13.000 millones de vacunas COVID-19 -suficientes para proporcionar un régimen completo al 80% de la población mundial-, menos de 1 de cada 4 personas de los países de bajos ingresos ha recibido una sola dosis.

La guerra, la violencia y la represión violan los derechos de más de 1.000 millones de niños al año, desproporcionadamente de niñas, desde Afganistán hasta Yemen, mientras que sólo la guerra en Ucrania ha desplazado a unos 15 millones de personas, la mayor cifra desde la Segunda Guerra Mundial.

El tema del Día Internacional para la Erradicación de la Pobreza 2022, « Dignidad para todos en la práctica », reconoce la dignidad como la piedra angular de todos los derechos fundamentales y llama a comprometerse juntos por la justicia social, la paz y el planeta.

El GCAP organizó asambleas populares nacionales en 27 países y 4 regiones durante la Semana de Acción Mundial Act4SDGs del 16 al 25 de septiembre de 2022. Estas movilizaciones tenían como objetivo recoger las preocupaciones de las comunidades y acordar acciones colectivas para hacer frente a las crecientes desigualdades y el empeoramiento de la situación de pobreza. Estos esfuerzos culminaron en una Asamblea Mundial de los Pueblos virtual que se celebró del 20 al 22 de septiembre, en la que los representantes de los pueblos y la sociedad civil compartieron preocupaciones y demandas que se recogieron en la declaración denominada Justicia mundial para lograr los ODS – Igualdad sostenible para todos. He aquí las principales demandas:

  1. Fortalecer la salud pública y la vacunación popular – Establecer una hoja de ruta global para la igualdad de las vacunas, que vaya más allá de la acción de junio de 2022 de la Conferencia Ministerial de la OMC e incluya una exención completa de los ADPIC que cubra las pruebas de diagnóstico, los tratamientos y las vacunas contra el COVID-19, además de la adopción del tratado sobre pandemias propuesto por la OMS.
  2. Protección social – Invertir y volver a comprometerse para lograr el ODS 1.3 y actuar ahora para garantizar la realización progresiva del derecho a la protección social universal para todos en 2030
  3. Espacio cívico y derechos humanos – Honrar, defender y respetar los derechos humanos, el espacio cívico y la protección de los activistas de la sociedad civil y los defensores del medio ambiente.
  4. Justicia de género – Adoptar un enfoque basado en los derechos humanos y en la transformación de género para la implementación de todos los aspectos de la Agenda 2030 y la respuesta a la pandemia del COVID-19 y sus crisis relacionadas.
  5. Justicia climática y medioambiental – Cumplir y superar los Acuerdos Climáticos de París. Todos los países deben tomar medidas inmediatas para reducir sus emisiones en consonancia con el Objetivo del Acuerdo de París de limitar el calentamiento global a no más de 1,5 grados y en proporción a sus emisiones históricas y actuales.
  6. Justicia de la deuda – Cancelación incondicional de los pagos de la deuda externa pública por parte de todos los prestamistas -bilaterales, multilaterales y privados- para todos los países necesitados ante la crisis sanitaria, económica y climática, durante al menos los próximos cuatro años, como paso inmediato, seguido de un programa claro para la cancelación incondicional de la deuda pendiente insostenible e ilegítima.
  7. Justicia económica – Convocar una cuarta Conferencia sobre financiamiento para el Desarrollo – FfD4 para llevar la responsabilidad democrática a las finanzas globales.
  8. Caminos hacia la paz – Los Estados miembros deben cooperar con la ONU para poner fin a las 32 guerras en curso -incluyendo un alto al fuego inmediato y la retirada de las fuerzas rusas de Ucrania- y liberar a las comunidades del miedo, la inseguridad y la violencia.
  9. Reforma de la ONU – Hacer que las instituciones mundiales sean más democráticas, representativas e inclusivas, limitando el uso del veto en el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU y garantizando el derecho de la sociedad civil a una participación significativa, basándose en las mejores prácticas de la Junta de Coordinación del Programa ONUSIDA y de la Organización Internacional del Trabajo, que proporcionan mecanismos eficaces, transparentes y formales de inclusión.

Lea la declaración completa:  Aquí

Descargue esta declaración en INGLÉS, FRANCÉS y ESPAÑOL.

Permalink: https://gcap.global/news/gcap-statement-on-the-international-day-for-the-eradication-of-poverty-17-october-2022/

Declaration – Asia Regional People’s Assembly 2022

Asia Regional People’s Assembly 2022

 

Declaration

 

[This charter has been prepared based on the discussions held in the Asia Regional People’s Assembly on 20thSeptember 2022 and other declarations which were earlier adopted e.g., declaration of South Asia Association for Poverty Alleviation (SAAPE) (adopted on June 3, 2022)]

Introduction: The Covid-19 pandemic has tremendously impacted the wellbeing of people – worsening the food crisis, increasing the poverty levels and widening inequalities. A healthy, peaceful, just and climate resilient society is becoming a far cry with fast dwindling commitments of the governments towards a just and equitable recovery. Undeterred rise in global temperature due to anthropogenic activities defy all claims of achieving a net zero emission. Russia’s war against Ukraine is threatening to destabilise the global order. Furthermore, it has impacted the survival and livelihood of the poor, especially their food and energy who have already been affected by the disasters and COVID-19 pandemic.

The threat from the COVID-19 virus looms large with a highly unequal rate of vaccination between the rich and the low- and middle-income countries. The continuous opposition of the demand for a TRIPS waiver of vaccine test and treatment at WTO by the rich countries till the last Ministerial Conference 12 (MC12) led to vaccine inequality and massive loss of lives in the global south. The decision by the WTO members in the MC12 on Covid vaccines is unlikely to lead to mass production and distribution of the vaccine. During the pandemic the health infrastructure crumbled exposing its fragility. Right to Health ought to be the framework for revitalising the sector.

The worsening debt situation in Latin America, Africa and Asian countries has forced their governments to take austerity measures cutting spending on social protection, health and education. The Right to Public Services and fully functional social protection ought to be in place instead of taking austerity measures.

Older people, persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, communities discriminated by work and descent, migrants, women, transgender people, and children are suffering in multiple ways.

Human rights activists, civil society and media have taken a severe beating during the pandemic and after due to unreasonable restrictions on these actors of democracy. The human rights of the most marginalised groups like the indigenous communities, Dalits and CDWD (Communities discriminated by work and descent), persons with disabilities, women and girls have been violated with impunity.

 The issues and concerns and demands have been developed on five following theses:

  1. Right to health, privatisation of health and vaccine inequality
  2. Food, hunger, poverty crisis and income inequality
  3. Universal social protection and right to public services
  4. Democracy, civic space and human rights
  5. Climate justice and Disaster Risk Reduction DRR (Disaster Risk Reduction)

 

  1. Right to health, privatisation of health and vaccine inequality

 

Issues and concerns:

 

  • Vaccine inequality is artificial. This is due to the Pharma greed and support to the greed by the rich countries. The proposal for TRIPS waiver of Covid-19 vaccines test and treatment at the WTO was defeated by the European countries
  • The decision of the MC12 of the WTO is very limited in nature and not an intellectual property waiver in real sense. It will not lead to mass production and distribution and ending vaccine inequality among the rich and the developing countries.
  • Marginalised peoples, LGBTQI, DWD communities, indigenous communities and other marginalised communities are having limited access to basic health services
  • Lack of public investment in primary health care
  • Increasing privatisation of health sector by countries
  • Trade and intellectual property barriers to production of COVID tests and treatment

Demands:

 

  • We demand the review of MC12 decision and a full TRIPS waiver of Covid-19 vaccines, test and treatment.
  • We demand national policies on free and universal vaccination with a priority to the most marginalised communities adhering to the principles of ‘Leave No One Behind’
  • We demand the adoption of the Pandemic Treaty
  • We demand Universal Health Protection mechanism in place funded through public investment
  • Decentralised production of COVID-tools, setting up tech transfer hubs
  • Strengthen community-based systems by increasing public investments in primary health care through improving human, physical infrastructure (human resources, medical equipment, facilities etc.
  • Transparency and civil society voices in decision-making in relation to financing and governance of global pandemic preparedness, prevention and response (PPPR) including the Financial Intermediary Fund at the World Bank and the pandemic treaty negotiations at the World Health Organisation

 

  1. Food, hunger, poverty and income inequality

 

Issues and concerns:

 

  • Inequalities are at an all-time high. The vulnerability of the health system, the lack of food pricing to protect people from the volatility of inflationary pressures, and the monopoly of a few food companies have reversed the gains in these areas.
  • Poverty, hunger, unemployment are on the rise during and post pandemic period. Child labour, gender violence, exclusion and discrimination have increased. Various marginalised groups are struggling to meet their both ends meet.
  • Grabbing of land and natural resources from the communities has led to loss of people’s right to natural resources and livelihood forcing them to poverty and hunger – their right to live with dignity
  • The marginalization and structural exclusion of women from governance, economic and political participation has reinforced the feminization of poverty, discrimination, and violence against them.
  • The exclusion of women and other sexual minorities from politics and governance is a violation of fundamental human rights as it breaches the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
  • We appreciate the Sustainable Development Goals’ affirmation to reduce inequality, combat climate change, and strengthen labour rights. However, the efforts to eradicate global poverty only through economic growth, export-oriented models, trade liberalisation, etc. would be counterproductive and perpetuate poverty as well as increase greenhouse gases.

 

Demands:

 

  • We demand adequate public resources to address the issues of poverty, hunger, unemployment, loss of livelihood, etc.
  • We need agrarian reforms and food sovereignty
  • We demand community rights over the land and other natural resources.
  • Land grabbing should stop immediately. Any diversion of natural resources from the communities to the corporate should be based on community’s consent.
  • Ecological planning through the involvement of the communities of the use of land, water and other resources should be done and implemented for community’s benefit
  • We should ensure women’s meaningful engagement in politics and governance that can contribute to reducing inequalities while promoting peace and dignity for all
  1. Universal social protection and right to public services

 

Issues and concerns:

 

  • As of 2020, only 46.9 percent of the global population were effectively covered by at least one social protection benefit leaving out a large percentage out of any safety net.
  • The new international economic order brings in more stringent privatisation measures, more flexibilities in labour standards at the production end, and foreign direct investment, which has stringent forms of labour extraction attached to them. In the medium and long run indebtedness occurs, and self-reliance is lost.
  • The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on almost every aspect of our lives and exposed the dismal state of our social protection system. The COVID-19 death toll remained four times higher in lower-income countries than in rich ones.
  • The situation of social protection in low-income countries is poor, so also the scale of investment
  • The worsening debt situation in Latin America, Africa and Asian countries has forced their governments to take austerity measures cutting spending on social protection, health and education

 

Demands:

 

  • We demand universal social protection funded by the government exchequer
  • Minimum living wages and job security across the Asia region by the Asian governments should be ensured
  • Ensure safe, orderly and regular migration involving full respect for human rights and the humane treatment of migrants providing them citizenship rights regardless of migration status
  • The governments should explore various means of resource generation e.g., imposing wealth tax etc
  • The illegitimacy of the public debt should be exposed and the government should make everything in relation to that transparent
  • The debt repayment policies should not force austerity measures and reduce funds for universal social protection.

 

  1. Democracy, civic space and human rights

 

Issues and concerns:

 

  • We are alarmed by the increasing warmongering and hostility among countries in south Asia
  • There has been rise of religious fundamentalism and majoritarianism adversely affecting the minorities in the region.
  • The region has witnessed electoral authoritarianism and lack of accountability by the governments
  • There are increased restrictions of fundamental freedom especially freedom of speech, freedom of association, and freedom of peaceful assembly.
  • The rights of women with disability have been violated during and post pandemic
  • There has been exclusion of youth from the decision-making process
  • The role of civil society has become crucial in raising voice against suppression of democratic freedom. But civil society is facing the state aggression
  • In the pretext of controlling the spread of Covid-19, many governments have taken measures to restrict civic space

 

Demands:

 

  • We demand the south Asian countries to delink from terrorism, war mongering and religious fundamentalism
  • We demand safeguard of democratic values including freedom of expression and speech, freedom of press, and protection of the minorities in whole of Asia
  • We demand the governments to respect and protect the freedom of the civil society organisations and democratic institutions
  • Urge the government to fulfil its obligations under the human rights covenants and conventions which the government ratified
  • Collaboration and partnership in order to bring the inclusive society
  • There should be civic Education to address and expand the civic space

    

 

  1. Climate justice and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)

 

Issues and concerns:

 

  • The climate crisis is a result of the overconsumption of some at the cost of many
  • Climate change – for which rich and developed countries are to blame – has increased vulnerabilities and disasters in low-income countries, and poor and marginalised communities
  • The climate crisis is closely linked to the greed-based development model adopted by the government. Unless consumption is controlled in the rich countries and also by the rich people in the developing countries, climate crisis cannot be addressed

 

Demands:

 

  • Communities for decades practised sustainable development and governments need to promote and scale-up community successes.
  • End use of fossil fuel in a time bound manner
  • In the spirit of global partnership, the rich countries should support the low- and middle-income countries with technology to cope up with climate change
  • The rich countries should do climate financing for the loss and damage caused in low- and middle-income countries
  • Every country in Asia should develop a roadmap for mitigation and adaptation.
  • There should be long term plan to transform every sector of economy toward the path of sustainability
  • Divesting from climate harming industries and investing in green alternatives

 

We commit ourselves as civil society actors to work together to make the demands a reality on the ground in a spirit of global solidarity with the people who are struggling for peace, justice and human rights in Asia and beyond.

 

The Undersigned:

  1. Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) (Coordination)
  2. Asia Dalit Rights Forum (ADRF)
  3. The Inclusivity Project
  4. Asia Civil Society Partnership for Sustainable Development (APSD)
  5. Asia Democracy Network (ADN)
  6. Asia Development Alliance (ADA)
  7. ActionAid India
  8. People’s Vaccine Alliance (PVA), Asia Chapter
  9. OXFAM Asia
  10. South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE)
  11. Wada Na Todo Abhiyan, India
  12. NGO Federation of Nepal
  13. Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM)
  14. Noakhali Rural Development Society, Bangladesh
  15. Pakistan Development Alliance (PDA)
  16. ONE Singapore
  17. Africa Japan Forum
  18. Coordination Committee of Cambodia (CCC)
  19. ActionAid International – Asia Region
  20. Aide Et Action – International
  21. Krityanand UNESCO Club Jamshedpur, India
  22. Women Working Group (WWG)
  23. Pakistan NGOs Forum
  24. SUNFO Global Federation – Women’s Wing International
  25. Dalit Welfare Organization
  26. Community Initiatives for Development in Pakistan (CIDP)
  27. Okayama Communication Network of the World Conference on Women, Japan
  28. Asian Health Institute (AHI)
  29. Action against Child Exploitation (ACE)
  30. Hitesh Bhatt, India (Individual)
  31. Jalpa Patel, India (Individual)

NOTE: This document has been updated to reflect additional endorsements from more Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and individuals alike. Download the updated document HERE.

Permalink: https://gcap.global/news/declaration-asia-regional-peoples-assembly-2022/

Invitation to Global People´s Assembly 2022, September 20-22

People´s Assemblies on the local and constituency level take place from July – September 2022 leading the bottom-up process toward regional assemblies in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe and culminating in the Global Week of Action from 16 to 25 September 2022.

We invite you to the Global People’s Assembly from 20 to 22 September!
Find the Programme 2022 HERE, it is also available in Español and Français.

Register for the online events here, each day has a separate invitation link, all registration links are also available in the detailed program available above:

The Global #PeoplesAssembly is part of the Global Week of Action #Act4SDGs from 16 to 25 September. Thousands of organisations and individuals are active during the week to demand the implementation of the SDGs from their governments. Learn more by visiting the Act4SDGs website.

Peoples’ Assemblies are planned in 27 countries by GCAP coalitions – 15 in Africa, 6 in Asia, 5 in Latin America and the Caribbean and 1 in Europe. Learn about how to participate by checking out this People’s Assembly Toolkit. These assemblies organised at the national level will give inputs into the regional and constituency assemblies as part of the Global People’s Assembly.

The impact of Covid is still strong in many countries – especially because of vaccine inequality. The debt crisis has led to austerity when increased spending in the social sector is needed. The high inflation of food and energy – further aggravated by the war against the Ukraine – and the increased impact of climate change have resulted in more people living in poverty and hunger than before.

Join #FlipTheScript stunt

Next year, 2023, will be the mid-way point to achieve the SDGs. If we don’t bring radical changes in the policies, we won’t reach them.

Therefore, we call upon all of you to passionately mobilise in the Global Week of Action – let’s globally unite with the FliptheScript Stunt! Find more information on the Stunt here.

Invite your community. Feel free to share this information to your circles of influence.

We hope to get good outreach and many participants for this important event!

Permalink: https://gcap.global/news/global-peoples-assembly-2022/

People’s Assembly 2022 toolkit

People´s Assemblies on the local and constituency level take place from July – September 2022 leading the bottom-up process toward regional assemblies in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe and culminating in the Global Week of Action from 16 to 25 September 2022.

The 2022 People´s Assemblies TOOLKIT is available here, you can also download it here. It is also available in French and Spanish: En Español aquí; Disponible ici en français. 

 

GCAP mobilises to demand an end to the rising poverty and hunger situation arising out of the COVID pandemic, inequalities, climate change and lately the war and inflation, ensuring free and universal vaccination & social protection linking to Agenda 2030.

Hashtags:  #PeoplesAssembly #Act4SDGs and #FliptheScript

Permalink: https://gcap.global/news/peoples-assembly-2022-toolkit/

GCAP UN HLPF side event: How to achieve the SDGs despite the worsening hunger and poverty crisis?

Register here: http://bit.ly/GCAPatHLPF2022

July 6, 2022 07:30 AM New York / 11:30 am GMT

It was quite evident in the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic that it’s not just a health issue but also an issue of hunger and loss of livelihood due to the strict lockdowns. After 2 years of pandemic, it’s clearer that “hunger” is established to be a real time threat as much as or more than the threat from the virus and this is alarming for the most marginalized communities. A recent Oxfam report brings forth this. According to the OXFAM report, 20 million more people have been pushed to extreme levels of hunger in 2021 reaching a total of 155 million people. It also states countries and regions where the food crisis has taken a colossal scale due to the pandemic are Yemen, the Central African Republic, Afghanistan, Venezuela, the West African Sahel, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria. Hunger hotspots were also seen in countries like Brazil, India and South Africa, where COVID-19 infections were extreme.

The world is facing a « human catastrophe » from a food crisis arising from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine is a major producer of cereals such as maize and wheat which have risen sharply in price due to the war affecting the supply to the rest of the world. The UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) warned last month that food prices could rise by up to 20% as a result of the conflict in Ukraine, raising the risk of increased malnutrition across the world.

The threat from the virus looms large in Africa (Barely 15% people are vaccinated), so also some low- and middle-income countries in other regions because of the TRIPS (Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights) restriction on the COVID-19 vaccines. The opposition from some rich countries to the TRIPS waiver proposal at the WTO has defeated global solidarity. This has a debilitating impact on people’s lives, food security and livelihood.

A robust and comprehensive social protection system could have addressed the devastating impact of the virus, but this is lacking in many low- and middle-income countries. While the national governments are responsible for strengthening their social protection mechanism, the need for international solidarity has never been felt more before. The debt situation in countries has a direct impact on the social protection system. Because of high debt in some Latin American, and African and Asian countries, the governments have been forced to take austerity measures. The spending on debt services in poor countries well surpasses the spending on social protection, health and education.

The side event will focus on the discussion on “Building forward better” around four interlinked themes – vaccines, hunger, debt and social protection, and livelihood while discussing it in context of the achievement of the SDGs, especially SDG 5 using the gender lens. This event will be considered as a part of the series of actions and discussions hosted by GCAP and the wider civil society coalitions in the build-up to the Global Week of Action (GWA) culminating in September 25, the day of adoption of the Agenda 2030. One flagship programme of GCAP is the People’s Assemblies – done during the Global Week of Action – at the national, regional and global levels with people from the marginalized groups coming together to discuss their issues and preparing a charter of demands for advocacy.

Register here: http://bit.ly/GCAPatHLPF2022

Download the flyer here.

Permalink: https://gcap.global/news/gcap-un-hlpf-side-event-how-to-achieve-the-sdgs-despite-the-worsening-hunger-and-poverty-crisis/

GCAP India publishes « Promises & Reality » on legacy of the Indian government

Download the full report here.

“Promises & Reality 2021-22: Citizens’ Report on the Year Three of the NDA II Government,” is a collective work by eminent members and organisations of the Indian civil society. The report covers a wide array of concerns and issues in thematic areas including health, education, human rights, freedom of expression, as well as a focus on marginalized and vulnerable communities such as Dalits, Adivasis, women, people with disabilities, urban poor, farmers, religious minorities, to name a few. Each chapter provides an assessment of the government’s  initiatives and actions during the year, includes a set of critical policy asks for each sector/issue/community, and highlights the key contributions/interventions of the civil society in India, especially during the second wave of the pandemic.

This Citizens’ Report (2021-22) on the government holds a mirror to how people’s lives, particularly that of the marginalized and vulnerable, have been impacted over the past year. In this context, the report becomes particularly important for people, communities and civil society
organisations to bring their concerns to the forefront and engage with their elected representatives and administration in order to pursue the objective of inclusive sustainable development for all people everywhere.

Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (WNTA) is a national campaign consisting of over 3500 CSOs, working together to promote governance accountability to end Poverty, Social Exclusion and Discrimination. WNTA provides a multi-stakeholder platform for civil society organisations and networks to jointly review government promises and performance across multiple sectors.


The Annual Citizens’ review of the Union Government is an important piece of this process to document an assessment against its promises to the people and Constitutional mandates. The first review was held in 2005 of UPA I followed by annual reviews every year. In addition to the annual reviews, a consolidated review of the 9 years of UPA (I&II), 100 days of UPA II, 100 days of NDA-I and 4 years NDA-I were also done (https://www.wadanatodo.net/).

As the Union Government enters the penultimate year of its second term, we hope this report contributes to strengthening governance accountability towards deepening our democracy, and facilitates inclusive, multistakeholder partnerships to build forward better.
Annie Namala, Roshni Nuggehalli, AK Singh and Amitabh Behar.

Download the full report here.

Permalink: https://gcap.global/news/gcap-india-publishes-promises-reality-on-legacy-of-the-indian-government/

The impact of COVID-19 on sex workers, migrant workers, indigenous & Muslim community in India

Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (GCAP India) has produced 4 policy briefs that detail the impact of COVID on sex workers, migrant workers, and indigenous communities and Muslim communities in India. You can download the report by clicking on each title.

 

  1. Paper: Impact of COVID-19 on Sex Workers:

According to the study by Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (GCAP India) the average income of households was found to be considerably affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, pushing the families dependent on sex work into a state of dire poverty in India. The average income of the sex workers saw an 82% decrease during and after the lockdown of March 2020. The income during the lockdown was ₹3780 ($ 50.4) per person per year, falling well below the poverty line. Since then, with relaxed norms of lockdown, there has been slight improvement but their current income is still 66% below their earnings before March 2020, when the national lockdown was imposed. With such huge loss in income and expenditure continuing to be high, sex workers were forced to rely on others and have reportedly raked up sizable debts trying to sustain through the pandemic. The most common reasons given for taking loans were to afford expenses of daily consumption (38%) and health needs (24%). These loans were mostly taken from self-help groups (49%) followed by microfinance banks (22%) and banks (11%).

 

  1. Paper: Impact of COVID-19 on Migrant workers: 

According to the survey done among the migrant labourers in India by Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (GCAP India), most of whom work in the informal sector, brings out the poor availability of employment post- pandemic. Across communities, an average of only 72 days of paid work was reported in the year 2020, which is not even 3 months, despite various employment guarantee schemes in place. Considering that a majority of the respondents are employed as wage labourers, the low work availability in the past year would have had a major impact on their earnings and capacity to save.

 

  1. Paper: Impact of COVID-19 on DNT-NT (Indigenous) communities; 

The COVID-19 pandemic has badly affected the lives of DNT-NT (Nomadic and denotified Tribes) indigenous communities. The restrictions on the mobility of these pastoral nomadic communities gravely hampered their means of livelihood as they mostly engage in grazing, and selling milk and related products. The forest dwelling Van Gujjars faced restrictions to enter towns and villages due to fear that they may spread COVID-19. Communities engaged in performing arts – such as the Nat and Bediya – faced a livelihood crisis due to the absence of travel and tourism. Further, many communities reported discrimination in access to relief due to the stigma attached to their communities and occupations.

 

  1. Paper: Impact of COVID-19 on the Muslim community:

The effects of the lockdown enforced due to the Covid-19 pandemic has been significant on the Muslim community in India suggests the survey done by Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (GCAP India). During the pandemic, 56.67% of the total respondents were worried about not having food. Of the total respondents, 54% couldn’t eat healthy food, 21.33% could eat only few kinds of food and 7.33% skipped at least a meal.

Permalink: https://gcap.global/news/impact-covid-india/

Side event recording available: COVID-19, Vaccine Inequality and Social Protection of women and marginalised communities

This official side event at the 9th Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD) discussed vaccine inequality and the lack of social protection mechanisms among the women and marginalized communities and discussed the way forward linking to the Agenda 2030 and the SDGs.

The Omicron variant of the Coronavirus, though milder, has spread in lightning speed affecting a large populace in a short span. The need of hospitalization is less, but the pressure on the health system has well been witnessed in the rich, middle and low-income countries. The rich countries in Europe are now administering the booster doses to their people while the Asia the countries are far from full vaccination of its people due to lack of vaccine availability. The artificial shortage of vaccines created by monopolising the technology has resulted in the mutation of the virus in regular intervals and affecting humanity. It’s very clear that even if the people in rich countries are fully vaccinated, they remain vulnerable. The proof is the scale at which France, Germany, UK and other European countries, where the vaccination rate is quite high, have been engulfed by the Omicron variant. The situation endorses the slogan of World Health Organisation (WHO) and the CSOs fighting for vaccine equality including GCAP, People’s Vaccine Alliance and others, that “No one is safe, till everyone is safe”. The rich countries like the UK and European Union have been blocking the demand for a TRIPS waiver of the Covid vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics by coming under the pressure of the greedy Pharma companies, thus endangering the lives of people in low and middle-income countries, so also in rich countries.

While the global supply of vaccines is discriminatory and unequal creating a north-south divide, studies and observations in Asia countries suggest the discrimination in vaccination among the marginalised groups including women, indigenous communities, transgender communities, migrants, and communities discriminated by work and descent (CDWD), persons with disabilities (PwD) and there is also a rural and urban divide. In Bangladesh and Pakistan, there are gender gaps (SDG 3 & 5) in vaccination, the migrant communities receive less vaccination in Thailand and there exist rural and urban divide in India. This has impacted their livelihood too.

The irony is that during the pandemic, inequality has risen. There has been a lackadaisical approach by the governments to social protection of the poorest and marginalised communities. In India for example, the income of the billionaires doubled during the pandemic times whereas 46 million people slid below the poverty line during the same time. All around one witnesses the poverty increasing, therefore it’s important to look at how governments are using the pandemic as an excuse to not ensure basic survival for the poor and vulnerable.

Permalink: https://gcap.global/news/side-event-recording-available-covid-19-vaccine-inequality-and-social-protection-of-women-and-marginalised-communities/

Recoding of GCAP Global Webinar on Vaccine Inequality from April 6, 2022

The Omicron variant of the Coronavirus, though milder, could spread in lightning speed affecting large populace in a short span. The need of hospitalisation was comparatively less than the earlier variants, but the pressure on the health system was well witnessed in the rich, middle and low income countries. The rich countries in Europe are now administering the booster doses to their people while the Asia the countries are far from full vaccination of its people due to lack of vaccine availability. The overall vaccination in Africa remains around 11% of its population1. Though there is vaccine hesitancy in the region, the prime reason is the lack of vaccine availability. Vaccine hesitancy also exists in other regions including Asia and Europe.

Download the PP slides from Maaza Seyoum, Global South Convener, People’s Vaccine Alliance here.

The artificial shortage of vaccines created by monopolising the technology has resulted in mutation of the virus in regular intervals and affecting humanity. It’s very clear that even if the people in rich countries are fully vaccinated, they remain vulnerable. The proof is the scale at which France, Germany, UK and other European countries, where the vaccination rate is quite high, have been engulfed by the Omicron variant. The situation endorses the slogan of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the CSOs fighting for vaccine equality including GCAP, People’s Vaccine Alliance and others, that “No one is safe, till everyone is safe”. The rich countries like the UK, Germany and European Union have been blocking the demand for a TRIPS waiver of the Covid vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics by coming under the pressure of the greedy Pharma companies, thus endangering the lives of people in low and middle income countries so also in rich countries. This is despite clamour by the civil society, global leaders and low and middle income countries for last more than a year.

Of late the European Union (EU) has acknowledged that the intellectual property restrictions are a barrier to access vaccines. It has entered into negotiation with India and South Africa and has proposed a compromised formula. This proposal however has been criticised a lot and it has been rejected by the People’s Vaccine Alliance and world leaders like Ban Ki-Moon, who suggests that India and South Africa should not accept half measure by west when lives are on line during the Covid-19 pandemic. While the global supply of vaccines is discriminatory and unequal creating a north-south divide, studies and observations in global south suggest the discrimination in vaccination among the marginalised groups including women, indigenous communities, transgender communities, migrants, communities discriminated by work and descent (CDWD), persons with disabilities (PwD) and there is also a rural and urban divide.

The covid has severely impacted the livelihood of people forcing millions into poverty and unemployment. The only way out is to fully vaccinate the global population and formulate policies for free and universal vaccination in the country. With these developments, GCAP proposes a global webinar on Vaccine Inequality with the following objectives.

Permalink: https://gcap.global/news/recoding-of-gcap-global-webinar-on-vaccine-inequality-from-april-6-2022/

Press and video coverage: GCAP Africa demands TRIPS Waiver

Actions on 11 March 2022 – the 2nd anniversary of the pandemic.

A comprehensive list of media coverage sorted by country  can be found at the bottom of this article.

We are now more than two years into the pandemic. On 11 March 2020 the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared COVID-19 as pandemic. Millions of people have lost their lives and hundreds of millions lost their livelihood and eduction due to the pandemic. Many lives could have been saved, if rich countries and the Pharma companies producing the COVID vaccine agreed to share their knowledge widely without any intellectual property restrictions. This did not happen. Profit won over people!

Only 11% of the people in Africa are vaccinated. Many GCAP Africa coalitions have sent letters to the embassies of Germany, France, the UK, EU and the USA to demand the TRIPS Waiver. They also organised press conferences and other gatherings, stunts & events. Some actions have been documented and can be found below. This action was done in cooperation with the People’s Vaccine Campaign (PVA).

GCAP Ghana

The members of GCAP Ghana sent letters demanding #TRIPSWaiver of Covid vaccines, test and treatment to the embassies of Germany, UK, France and US in Ghana #PeoplesVaccine #PeopleOverProfit #EndCOVIDMonopolies.

 

 

CONGOMA/GCAP Malawi

On the 2nd anniversary of the Pandemic, the civil society led by CONGOMA/GCAP Malawi demands the #TRIPSWaiver of Covid vaccines, test and treatment! #PeoplesVaccine #PeopleOverProfit #EndCOVIDMonopolies

 

 

GCAP Rwanda

In a Press Conference, members of GCAP Rwanda raised concerns over low vaccination rate in Africa and made the rich countries like UK, Germany, France and also EU responsible for vaccine monopoly. #PeoplesVaccine #PeopleOverProfit #EndCOVIDMonopolies.

GCAP Nigeria

African lives DO matter. Its time to say YES to PEOPLE, and NO to PROFIT! GCAP Nigeria demands a #PeoplesVaccine. #PeopleOverProfit #EndCOVIDMonopolies

 

 

GCAP Tanzania

End vaccine apartheid in Africa and adopt #TRIPSWaiver of Covid vaccines, test and treatment at the WTO: Message to the leaders of rich countries by the members of SAHiRNGON/GCAP Tanzania in a radio show. #PeoplesVaccine #PeopleOverProfit #EndCOVIDMonopolies

 

GCAP Senegal

Press Conference by GCAP Senegal: The western countries must support #TRIPSwaiver to help Africa manufacture Covid vaccines. #PeoplesVaccine #PeopleOverProfit #EndCOVIDMonopolies

 

GCAP Mauritius

GCAP Mauritius engaged with the media to demand #PeoplesVaccine!! #PeopleOverProfit #EndCOVIDMonopolies

 

 

 

 

GCAP Zambia

A Press Conference by GCAP Zambia & video was produced to demand #TRIPSWaiver and #EndCOVIDMonopolies in Zambia

GCAP Africa press coverage related to the actions on 11 March 2022:

Tanzania

Nigeria

Malawi

Zambia:

Ghana:

Permalink: https://gcap.global/news/gcap-africa-demands-trips-waiver/

Sustainable Equality for All Emerging from COVID-19

GCAP´s new political position is now available in English, Spanish and French, click on your preferred language to read the full text. The introductory part of the position is available below: COVID-19 has turned the world upside down.  But it is hardly the first crisis to affect the billions of people whose rights to health, security, food and a life of dignity are routinely denied on a daily basis.  For more than 15 years, the Global Call to Action Against Poverty and its constituents across the globe have been fighting for justice by challenging the structures and institutions that perpetuate poverty and inequalities. Since the pandemic began in December 2019, more than 200 million people have contracted COVID-19.  Four and a half million individuals – sisters, brothers, parents, neighbours and friends – have died from the disease.  These are the official numbers.  The actual tally is likely much higher; many impoverished communities simply do not have the resources to provide a full accounting.  At the same time, nearly 100 million people have been pushed into extreme poverty by the pandemic. COVID-19 is an Inequality Virus.  The disparities are all around us:  from unequal access to the vaccine to the fact that frontline workers – who face the greatest health risks – are predominantly women of colour as well as individuals from communities that face discrimination based on their work and descent.  The education of an entire generation has been jeopardised, but students from affluent communities with good internet connection have fared better than others, while tens of millions of girls are danger of never returning to school. The world’s richest billionaires have seen their wealth double over the past year, while low-paid and informal-economy workers have seen their income shrink or dwindle to zero.

Permalink: https://gcap.global/news/global-call-to-action-against-poverty-gcap-political-position-paper/