Vaccines Equity or Investments: What Collaboration Does Africa Need More?

At the University of Edinburgh’s “Futures Conversations: Future of Economy”, which featured global influencers, policymakers, financial and economic leaders, academic experts, including former UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown and Senior Director of the African Investment Forum, AfDB, Chinelo Anohu, a strong case was made for investments and collaboration over aids for Africa’s socio-economic transformation, reports Kayode Tokede

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, international cooperation has never been more important. In furtherance of this, the “Edinburgh Futures Conversations,” was instituted by the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom, to promote action-orientated thinking, global understanding and cooperation.

The recent edition of the Conversation, a virtual conference, which dwelt on “The Future Economy”, assembled global influencers, financial and economic leaders, academic experts and policymakers, alumni and students to debate contemporary global challenges and identify opportunities to transform economies and support regeneration, recovery, and prosperity for all. Among them were former UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown; Senior Director of the African Investment Forum, African Development Bank’s flagship investment platform, Chinelo Anohu; the first woman head of a UK clearing bank, Dame Susan Rice; Senior Strategic Advisor for the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, Katherine Trebeck; and Islamic Finance Council UK’s government policy advisory lead, Omar Shaikh, the University’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Peter Mathieson, among others.

Vaccine Equity, Political Nationalism
Expectedly, critical issues like investments and vaccines equity/Africa’s aid dependency resonated at the conference.
Headlining the Conversation, former Gordon Brown, said with the benefit of hindsight as UK’s Prime Minister during the global economic meltdown of over a decade ago, global problems such as posed by Covid-19 pandemic needed global solutions. He identified political nationalism at a time the world desperately needed interdependence, as the dominant threat to global economy.

“I believe Africa’s and Asia’s problems that we’ve been hearing about are Europe’s and America’s too and vice versa, as will be our solutions. No one is safe from the pandemic anywhere until everyone, everywhere, is safe. Our countries will live below its potentials unless no country lives below their potential.

“But here is where my optimism has to be qualified: We will need even greater resilience than the economy showed during the pandemic if we are to overcome what I see as the underlying non-economic forces at work, that threaten economic disruption, division, and divergence in place of decades of convergence; and this is the a real concern for Africa.

“Disruptions, not just because of the very real and deadly threat from future pandemic… but also disruption and division from what I think we’ve got to now accept is the dominant ideology of our age – political nationalism.

“It’s an ‘us versus them’ ideology, which presents itself in rampant protectionism – America first, China first, India first, my tribe jingoism. So, nationalism as it is experienced across the world, not patriotism, which is positive nationalism, is actually a danger to the economic growth of the world and of course its very opposite of what we need, which is cooperation to deal with the issues in hand”.

Brown observed that the harmful impacts of this dominant global ideology in a Covid-19 era were most manifest in vaccines hoarding and consequent inequity. He stated that while the advanced countries would have produced 10 billion vaccines in the next six months, more than enough to vaccinate the 92 low-income countries of the world, the vaccines were inequitably distributed.

Consequently, African and other law-income economies continue to experience stunted economic growth, debt rise, migration increase, little social protection, and increased number of the poor.

Brown described the failure to vaccinate the world “even when there are now vaccines available to do so and when we know the economic benefits to countries if it happens” as “the greatest global public policy failure of our time”, ”monumental “moral failure” and a “catastrophe” the world would pay a huge price for. He wondered how the world would ever be able to cooperate to deal with even bigger global problems.

“Let’s be clear, this divide between the vaccine rich and the vaccine poor today, arise not because of a shortage supply. We are producing one and half a billion vaccines. It’s a failure to distribute vaccines equitably even when we know that there are 240 million vaccines currently stockpiled in the West and not being used and that in four-month time, there will be 1.1 billion vaccines we do not need, which would have been delivered to European and North American governments, (but) which should have been airlifted to Africa and low-income countries.

“And people will look back and ask if the international community cannot come to the aid of the unvaccinated poor when we have the supply; when we know it’s essential for economic recovery, and when its clearly in everybody’s self interest to do so”, he said.

He rued the weakening of the international organisations like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, World Trade Organisation (WTO), among others, and called for their reform and proper resourcing to deal with the global crisis and challenges.

“The IMF is now ineffective, the World Bank is now ineffective, the WTO is neutered, and the World Health Organisation is blamed rather than supported when it does things that are necessary. The international institutions lose that focus and coordination of economic policy is impossible.

“If you are going to have the economic cooperation based on the interdependence that we are talking about, you are going to take nationalism head on”, he added.

The former Prime Minister advocated a new order where Africa, which he said had been so deprived of resources, is in a position to play greater role in global economy.

But while that is awaited, Brown emphaised: “The four powers that are holding the vaccines at the moment – Britain, Canada, America, and the European Union – should get round the table, agree that they are going to airlift the vaccines very quickly month by month”.

Push for Paradigm Shift

However, the Head of AfDB’s Africa Investment Forum, Chinelo Anohu, was of the view that while it would be good for Africa to be given vaccines, the continent needed more of partnerships and investments to be self-reliant, as it would be far more beneficial for Africans to take their future into their own hands.

“I think there needs to be a paradigm shift from the way we look at collaboration. Africa is increasingly getting tired of asking for aid when in all honesty we can trade. And that is what we’re now looking to provide at the African Investment Forum, a flagship initiative of the Africa Development Bank, where both domestic and International investors who are looking to invest for profit while fulfilling a need are mobilised to finance projects.

“Yes, there is a moral obligation to be our brother’s keeper, but what you’re seeing now on the continent is a realisation that you have an option not to wait to be given”, Anohu argued.

She, therefore, argued that Africa needed more of international investments and partnerships by the rest of the world, rather than waiting for vaccines equity, as vaccines equity and investments could happen simultaneously.

“A couple of years ago, it was Ebola ravaging the continent. Now it is Covid-19. There may be something else in the future. How do we then position Africa to very clearly respond to its own needs without a dependence on aid?

“So, rather than looking to be given vaccines developed in those labs outside Africa by people, some of whom are of African descent, we should be looking at setting up these vaccine plants on the continent.

“Our call now to the rest of the world is to join us, not as aid givers, but as investment partners so that we can chart the course for the future”, she stated.

Anohu and AIF’s position resonates with those of many leading voices on the continent. In 2004, President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, told the 2nd Ordinary Session of the Conference of the African Union Ministers of Trade: “In Africa today, we recognise that trade and investment, and not aid, are pillars of development.”

In his 2018 address during Ghana’s 61st independence anniversary, President Nana Akufo-Addo, said that Ghana and Africa were already fatigued by aids from the developed nations.

“Even if there were no aid fatigue, and with the best will in the world, and the most charitable governments in place in the so-called donor countries, there will never be enough aid to develop Ghana to the level we want… Aid was never meant to be what would bring us to the status of a developed nation”, Akufo-Addo said.

African attitudes to available Covid-19 vaccines, as shown in the very low number of people presenting themselves for the available vaccines, also speak volumes. This is due mainly to existing trust deficit and conspiracy theories. Many believe, rightly or wrongly, that more Africans could have presented themselves if the vaccines were manufactured locally.

Going forward

Whether it was Brown and Anohu’s contributions or those of Dame Susan Rice and Omar Shaikh, the takeaway from the Futures Economic Conversations is the need to reinvigorate interdependence and interconnectedness, value economic activities beyond profit and numbers, and support Africa through investments.

Importantly, Anohu’s parting shot did not leave the world in doubt as to what Africa needs more between aids (as represented by vaccines equity) on one hand and investments and partnership on the other.

“The food for thought going forward, is that if you are doing something for far too long and it is not working, it might be time to reflect on what you are doing to be sure you’re doing it the right way. It will be more interesting for us to focus on partnerships, moving from international dependency to investment, not aids.

“I also think that being more focused on the private sector and assisting them through investments to realise many of the potentials that are prevalent on the African continent might be a way of achieving some of these goals as opposed to continually relying on governments.”

However, these investments and partnerships will not come to Africa on a platter of gold. Will the continent insist on the path being charted by the AIF? Will it deepen regional integration to make the continent more competitive? Will the continent’s leaders actively seek commercial and trade engagements, as the future of African trade regime will depend more on what Africa will negotiate, not what Africa deserves? Only time will tell.