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Refugees living in camps are sharing one tap between up to 250 people and many have less than3.5 square meters of living space per person which will make it extremely difficult to contain the coronavirus outbreak, Oxfam said today.

Vaccinating the poorest half of humanity —3.7 billion people— against coronavirus could cost less than what the ten biggest pharmaceutical companies make in four months, Oxfam said today. 

Comment ahead of the Vaccine Alliance pledging conference tomorrow (4 June) that is expected to raise at least US$ 7.4 billion to support the roll out of vaccination programs across the developing world, and establish a new fund to help developing countries buy and distribute a coronavirus vaccine.

COVID-19 has pushed millions into poverty in East Africa, and worsened inequality. However, building back during and after the pandemic offers East African governments a once-in-a-generation opportunity to do what their citizens want: make their economic systems fairer by increasing taxes on wealthy and large corporations, boost public spending, and improving workers’ rights.

“Today’s lack of progress on debt relief is as irresponsible as it is underwhelming. Merely encouraging private sector creditors and multilateral banks to participate in the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) is woefully inadequate and a dereliction of duty. The G20 is in denial of the scale of response needed to address the worse global crisis in a century," said Jaime Atienza, Oxfam International’s Debt Policy Lead, in response to the communiqué of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting.

In response to the outcome of COP28, Oxfam International’s Climate Change Policy Lead Nafkote Dabi said: “Everyone fighting against the global climate crisis has little to celebrate from this disappointing COP28. Its final outcome is grossly inadequate. Oil, coal and gas won again, but they had to struggle harder to do so and their era is nearing its end."   

Governments and aid agencies have to tackle the politics and power at the heart of the increasing effects of climate change, rising inequality and people’s vulnerability to disasters according to a new report published today by international agency Oxfam.

Coronavirus is threatening us all. With each day, in every family, community and country, more of us are being personally affected by it. To beat the pandemic and avert harm to the lives of billions we must work together. We need to act across all countries and for every person. Fighting for some but not others is not an option. It only fuels risk for us all.

We need to transform our economies to deliver universal health, education and other public services. To make this possible, the richest people and corporations should pay their fair share of tax. This will drive a dramatic reduction in the gap between rich and poor and between women and men.

The EU’s response to COVID-19 in the recovery package, and the Farm-to-Fork Strategy, are opportunities to help fix the broken global food system.