Patricia Scotland makes urgent appeal for improved access to vaccines

Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scotland has called for improved access to COVID-19 vaccines to be prioritised for developing countries.

Speaking on Wednesday in Barbados at the UN trade conference UNCTAD15, she said that this was key to ending the deadly pandemic.

“Before we can even speak about recovery, our immediate and most urgent priority must be to ensure greater access to vaccines for developing countries, and especially least developed countries,” she said, addressing the conference.

“From Africa to Asia and the Caribbean to the Pacific, it is heartening to see regional cooperation and regional solidarity at work to enhance vaccine access and distribution. The task ahead is to galvanise this same spirit of regional solidarity to help ensure an inclusive and sustainable recovery,” added Scotland as she addressed the roundtable under the theme ‘Regional integration for a resilient, inclusive and sustainable future’.

Speaking to a virtual audience of more than 400 attendees plus 50 ambassadors, Scotland stressed that countries must have a holistic response to responding to the multiple and interlinked global crises of the pandemic, climate change and its economic fallout.

“The Commonwealth spans across five regions. Regional integration allows for pooling of scarce resources and sharing of capacity, knowledge, data and best practices. It can also enhance governance by encouraging countries to converge or harmonise their national laws and policies on a range of issues from anti-corruption to environmental protection,” she said.