News & Media

Oxfam reacts to Ukraine and Russia’s recently signed grain deal

July 25, 2022

In reaction to Ukraine and Russia’s recently signed grain deal, Max Lawson, Oxfam International’s Inequality Policy & Advocacy Lead said:

“This is extremely important news that puts people before politics. The deal will help calm spiralling food prices that have fuelled poverty and hunger worldwide.

“It will help countries already mired in hunger crises, which relied on Ukraine and Russia for their wheat imports until the war broke out. This includes Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, which have experienced soaring food prices amidst the worst drought in nearly 40 years, and Yemen.

“We have already seen an immediate reaction on global markets. The price of wheat is down 5 percent right now. But this drop in global prices may not translate into an immediate reduction in the cost of grocery items. This is especially true if billionaire traders hoard wheat as it becomes available in the market.

“This agreement alone won’t solve the hunger crisis impacting multiple countries worldwide. We need a concerted global effort to ensure everyone has equal access to affordable, nutritious food. That means fixing our deeply unequal food system.

“It is critical that food is not used as a weapon of war. Grains must be able to move swiftly to countries most in need. It is equally important that aid organisations are able to purchase this wheat and get it to those who desperately need it.”

Pacific leaders’ endorsement for ICJ advisory opinion bid must spur global groundswell

July 19, 2022

The support from Pacific leaders for an advisory opinion on climate change from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is welcomed and must begin a global groundswell of support ahead of the UN General Assembly in September, The Civil Society Alliance Supporting an Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on Climate Change (CSO ICJAO Alliance) said.

Led by the Vanuatu Government, and supported by a global alliance of civil society groups representing more than 1,500 civil society organisations in 130 countries, the campaign for an ICJ advisory opinion is designed to provide an international legal framework for those experiencing the worst of the climate crisis to affect broad, accelerated change.

The campaign is in response to the human rights crisis caused by climate change, with hundreds of millions of people in vulnerable countries having their livelihoods, housing, food, water, sanitation, healthcare and the environment severely impacted.

The decision to support the campaign comes following dedicated efforts from Pacific youth and civil society, who recently held a Pacific Solidarity Festival calling on Pacific leaders and family across Australia and New Zealand to back the cause.

Vishal Prasad, Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change campaigner, said the endorsement from PIF leaders is a major step on the campaign’s voyage, which would help create a global groundswell.

“Pacific leaders have grasped the opportunity to help change the course of climate justice for the Pacific and around the world.

“The Advisory Opinion Campaign is well on the way to becoming a reality. We invite people from around the world to join us on this journey, because while this initiative started in the Pacific it is truly a global campaign. All countries in the United Nations will have the opportunity to vote for climate justice this year, but now is the crucial time for them to come out and show their support.

“This is a major step on our shared journey to link the impacts of climate change with our fundamental human rights, and welcome recognition from Pacific leaders of those rights. Pacific livelihoods, health, culture and the environment are at serious risk, and we are hopeful about having recourse to change the course through an advisory opinion.

“Supporting the campaign for an ICJ advisory opinion costs nothing, but means everything to nations hit hardest by the climate crisis. This is an idea whose time has come.”

Steph Hodgins-May, Greenpeace Australia Pacific senior campaigner, said support for the ICJ advisory campaign is welcomed, but must be part of a broader effort from Australia to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

“Australia’s endorsement of the campaign for an advisory opinion on climate change from the ICJ is welcome, and demonstrates Australia is serious about both tackling the climate crisis, and strengthening its relationship with the Pacific.

“However, this endorsement cannot be viewed in isolation. To be a true Pacific family member, Australia must not only champion the journey towards climate justice through the campaign for an ICJ advisory opinion, but also pursue more ambitious climate action by committing to no new coal and gas projects.”

Rose Kulak, Amnesty International Australia campaigner, said:

“By giving endorsement, Australia can now step up and be a global leader in creating support for the upcoming vote in the UN General Assembly. A majority vote is needed at the UN before the ICJ can provide its advisory opinion on the human rights impact of climate change. We need Australia to champion this on the world stage.

“Climate change is a human rights crisis of unprecedented proportions, affecting health, food, water, housing, livelihoods and life itself. It is a threat to not only individuals but to entire cultures and peoples. This support from Pacific leaders for an ICJ advisory opinion is a crucial step in shaping climate action from a much-needed human rights perspective.”

Joseph Zane Sikulu, 350.org Pacific Managing Director, said:

“Time and again, Pacific Island leaders have shown the world what true climate leadership looks like. This endorsement of the campaign for an ICJ advisory opinion is a welcome message that Pacific, New Zealand and Australian leaders want to be on the right side of history, and it must be backed up by action.

“This voyage did not start here, nor does it end with this endorsement. We carry on the legacy of climate leaders from Tuvalu, Marshall Islands and Kiribati who fought for a target of 1.5°C to stay alive, and our canoe will not rest until we secure a safe and liveable future. Now it is time for the rest of the world to follow suit.”

Ashwini Prabha, Board Chair of the Pacific Islands Climate Action Network, said:

“Supporting the ICJAO is a test for global solidarity on climate emergency in times of critical energy and geopolitical debates where many countries are expanding fossil fuels instead of phasing out, jeopardising our chances to remain below the 1.5 degree Celsius threshold.

“All citizens around the world need their basic human rights protected and the ICJAO can ensure this recognition. Pacific civil society is counting on support from all regions around the globe in the months ahead culminating in a majority vote at the UN General Assembly in September in New York.”

Notes

See PIF’s official communique here.

Two-weeks increase in food billionaires’ wealth enough to fully fund East Africa hunger crisis response

July 18, 2022

Food inflation in some East African countries outstrips global average leaving millions hungry

Food inflation in East African countries where tens of millions of people are caught in an alarming hunger crisis has increased sharply, reaching a staggering 44 percent in Ethiopia – nearly five times the global average.

It is estimated that one person is dying every 48 seconds in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia alone, where the worst drought in decades is being exacerbated by the war in Ukraine and is pushing food prices to skyrocketing levels.

Against this backdrop, food billionaires have increased their collective wealth by US$382bn since 2020. Less than two weeks’ worth of their wealth gains, would be more than enough to fund the entirety of the US$6.2 billion UN appeal for East Africa, which is currently woefully funded at a mere 16 per cent.

Hanna Saarinen, Oxfam’s Food Policy Lead, said: “A monstrous amount of wealth is being captured at the top of our global food supply chains, meanwhile rising food prices contribute to a growing catastrophe which is leaving millions of people unable to feed themselves and their families. World leaders are sleepwalking into a humanitarian disaster.”

“We need to reimagine a new global food system to really end hunger; one that works for everyone. Governments can and must mobilise enough resources to prevent human suffering. One good option would be to tax the mega-rich who have seen their wealth soar to record levels during the past two years.

“This fundamentally broken global food system – one that is exploitative, extractive, poorly regulated and largely in the hands of big agribusinesses – is becoming unsustainable for people and the planet and is pushing millions in East Africa and worldwide to starvation.”

People in East Africa spend as much as 60 percent of their income on food, and the region over-relies on imported staple food. For example, food and beverages account for 54 percent of CPI in Ethiopia, compared to just 11.6 percent in the United Kingdom. While many people in affluent countries are struggling with the increased consumer prices, their counterparts in East African countries are facing hunger and destitution.

In Somalia, maize prices were six times higher (78 percent) than global prices (12.9 percent) in May 2022 than they were 12 months before. In some regions, the minimum food basket expenditure has soared to over 160 percent compared to last year. The cost of one kilo of sorghum – a staple food – was more than 240 percent higher than the five-year average.
In Ethiopia, food inflation soared by 43.9 percent since last year. Cereals prices increased by 70 percent in the year to May, more than double the global increase
In Kenya, the price of maize flour, the main staple, has doubled in seven months and rose by 50 percent in just a month (between June and July 2022). Rising food and energy prices will increase poverty by 2.5 percent, pushing about 1.4 million Kenyans into extreme poverty.
In South Sudan cereals prices in May were triple their levels a year earlier, while the price of bread has doubled since last year. The average price of cereals has been higher than 30 percent of the five-year average.

In Bundunbuto village, Puntland, Somalia, families’ purchasing power has been halved compared with two months ago, meaning when they used to buy 25kg of rice and sugar, now they can only buy 13.5kg per month.

In Somalia, where a “risk of famine” was recently declared, nearly half the population – over seven million people – face acute hunger, of whom 213,000 are at risk of famine.

Shamis Jama Elmi (38), a mother to a family of eight, moved from Barate to Docoloha displacement camp in 2017 because of the drought. The US$60 cash assistance she gets each month from Oxfam can only buy 12 kg of flour, rice and sugar to sustain her family for half a month. “We eat one meal a day and used to eat 3 times a day. We only eat rice with salt.”

Global food prices have hit a 50-year high and worldwide there are now 828 million people going hungry – 150 million more than at the start of the COVID pandemic. The Ukraine conflict has caused a huge spike in grain and energy prices but these have only worsened what was already an inflationary trend. This means, even when food is available, millions cannot afford to buy it.

Even within advanced economies like the US, the poorest 20 percent of the population are forced to spend four times more on food than the wealthiest 20 percent.

“Our broken global food system, and the inequality that underlies it, have wrought a war of attrition to millions of poor people who have lost their last purchasing power and can no longer afford to eat,” Saarinen said.

“To help those countries cope with rising food prices and the hunger crisis, rich nations must immediately cancel debt for those countries – which has doubled over the last decade– in order to enable them to free resources to deal with the skyrocketing hunger and to import needed grains. This money can and should be easily recovered by taxing the ultra-rich.”

To end the root causes of hunger, governments must better regulate food markets and ensure more flexible international trade rules in favor of the world’s most vulnerable consumers, workers and farmers. Governments and donors should support small-scale farmers who in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa provide more than 70 percent of the food supply .

Notes to the Editor

Food inflation over the last year in Ethiopia (44 percent,) Somalia (15 percent), and Kenya (12 percent) is exceeding the G7 (10 percent) and global average (9 percent).
One year food inflation up until May 2022 for Kenya, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Somalia was sourced from Trading Economics. The G7 average from the OECD (up to May 2022) and the global average from the ILO (the latest data available is up to March 2022).
Data on food and agriculture billionaire wealth was drawn from Oxfam’s Profiting from Pain report and is for the period of March 2020 to March 2022. Two-weeks increase in food billionaires’ wealth would correspond to US$7.3 billion.
In Kenya, the price of maize flour, the main staple, doubled in seven months (KES 108 in Nov 2021 for 2kg packet; KES 210 in July 2022).
To date, only US$9 million of the total US$6.157 billion UN appeal for Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, and South Sudan (both HRP and FA) has been funded. This is a gap of 84 percent. Source: UN OCHA Appeals and response plans 2022 | Financial Tracking Service (unocha.org)
Grain prices are from FAO’s Food Price Monitoring and Analysis tool for May 2021-May 2022; and FAO’s Food Price Monitoring and Analysis Bulletin #5, 15 June 2022
Oxfam, together with partners is supporting the most vulnerable people in East Africa with lifesaving food, cash assistance and water and sanitation services. It aims to reach over 1.3 million of the most vulnerable people.

G7 failure to tackle hunger crisis will leave millions to starve

June 28, 2022

Responding to news of the US$4.5 billion pledge made by the G7 leaders to tackle global hunger, Max Lawson, Head of Inequality Policy at Oxfam said:

“Faced with the worst hunger crisis in a generation, the G7 have simply failed to take the action that is needed. Many millions will face terrible hunger and starvation as a result.’

‘Instead of doing what is needed, the G7 are leaving millions to starve and cooking the planet.’

‘The G7 say themselves that 323 million people are on the brink of starvation, because of the current crisis, a new record high. Nearly a billion people, 950 million are projected to be hungry in 2022. We need at least US$28.5 billion more from the G7 to finance food and agriculture investments to end hunger and fill the huge gap in UN humanitarian appeals. The US$4.5 billion announced is a fraction of what is needed. The G7 could have done so much more here in Germany to end the food crisis and prevent hunger and starvation worldwide.’

‘The G7 weakening of their commitment to stop public money subsidising planet killing fossil fuels is appalling and makes climate breakdown ever more real. This is further exacerbated by their lack of progress in delivering promised finance to support climate action in developing countries.’

‘The G7 refusal to heed the call of last year’s UN climate summit to strengthen their weak targets to cut emissions sends out a terrible signal to the rest of the World, especially to vulnerable communities already suffering the impacts of the worsening climate crisis.’

Food and hunger

‘Pledging more money is just part of what the G7 could do to end hunger. They could ban biofuels. They could cancel debts of poor nations. They could tax the excess profits of food and energy corporates. Most importantly they could have tackled the economic inequality and climate breakdown that is driving this hunger. They failed to do any of this, despite having the power to do so.’

‘‘For every dollar in aid given, poor countries have to pay back US$2 dollars to their creditors, often banks in New York or London making huge profits. The G7 should have cancelled those debts to enable countries to spend money instead on feeding their people.’

‘The G7 was held in the same location in Germany in 2015, where a commitment was made to lift 500 million people out of hunger. Seven years later and in fact there are as many as 335 million more hungry people in the world. We urgently need new approaches to addressing hunger that start with addressing underlying drivers such as economic inequality and climate breakdown. Current efforts are woefully inadequate.”

‘Corporate profits have soared during COVID-19 and the number of billionaires has increased more in 24 months than it did in 23 years. This food crisis is big business.’

‘The G7 had the opportunity to tax the big winners from the crises. The energy and food corporations are making huge profits, creating 62 new food billionaires. They could have agreed to coordinated windfall taxes to fight this crisis and missed a huge opportunity to do so.’

“What we need to see a clear action plan with a new funding not just from traditional donors, but from companies and others that have profited from the current spike in energy and food prices to address the underlying causes of global food insecurity and hunger. It should be clear that the recently launched Global Alliance for Food Security (GAFS) will complement, rather than undermine existing institutions responsible for global coordination of food and agriculture, including the Committee on World Food Security which plays a key role in policy setting. There is a need to clarify what concrete measures will be proposed under this initiative, and ensure sufficient funding is attached to it to ensure it can deliver.”

“In addition, G7 need to fund the US$46 billion global humanitarian appeal which, despite increasing five-fold in the last decade, is only 20 percent funded today. They should agree to fill this funding gap of US$37 billion immediately.”

Climate

The G7 commitments to largely decarbonise their power sectors by 2035 and their road sector by 2030 point into the right direction but should have been stronger, and a much-needed 2030 coal phase out date is missing.

We welcome the initial steps towards Just Transition Energy Partnerships with Indonesia, India, Senegal and Vietnam as such partnerships can create predictability and reliability. Yet, those partnerships need to be backed up by financial commitments to make them effective, and the design and implementation of such partnerships must involve local communities and vulnerable populations from the beginning, based on truly participatory, inclusive and gender just approaches.

COVID-19

Despite the growing danger of new COVID-19 variants, and the failure to deliver even half of the vaccines they promised a year ago at the Carbis Bay Summit in the UK a year ago. Only 18 percent of the poorest countries are fully vaccinated. The G7 continue to defend the monopolies and intellectual property of their pharmaceutical corporations over supporting developing countries to make their own, generic vaccines.

‘What a difference a year makes. The G7 want us to think COVID-19 is over, and the ongoing global health crisis doesn’t exist. Tell that to the many millions yet to have a single vaccine, and the many still dying from this cruel disease.’

Notes to Editors

West Africa is currently facing its worst food crisis in a decade, with 27 million people going hungry. This number could rise to 38 million – an unprecedented level – unless urgent action is taken.
In East Africa, one person is estimated to be dying of hunger every 48 seconds in drought-ravaged Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, as actions have remained too slow and too limited to prevent the hunger crisis from escalating. The rainfall deficit in the most recent rainy season in these three countries has been the most severe in at least 70 years.
In Yemen and Syria, protracted conflicts have shattered people’s livelihoods. In Yemen, more than 17 million people – over half of the population – don’t have enough food, and pockets of the country are experiencing famine-like conditions. In Syria, six out of 10 Syrians – 12.4 million people – are struggling to put food on the table. This means many families are resorting to extreme measures to cope: going into debt to buy food, taking children out of school to work, and reducing the number of meals they have each day. Marrying off young daughters so there is one less mouth to feed has become another negative coping strategy.
The FAO State of the World’s Food Security report 2021 (page 10) shows that 615 million people were hungry in 2015. The WFP are now talking about as many as 950 million in hunger this year, 2022. The difference between these two is 335 million. When they last met in Germany in 2015, the G7 made the following declaration in their communique:
‘As part of a broad effort involving our partner countries, and international actors, and as a significant contribution to the Post 2015 Development Agenda, we aim to lift 500 million people in developing countries out of hunger and malnutrition by 2030.’
According to the UN OCHA Financial Tracking Service there is a US$37 billion funding shortfall in humanitarian appeals. According to the Ceres2030: Sustainable Solutions to End Hunger report, which sets out a 10-year plan to eradicate hunger, an additional US$330 billion is needed over 10 years and that the donor funding gap over this period is US$140 billion, so US$14 billion per year. Adding US$37 billion and US$14 billion gives us a total of US$51 billion each year.
The G7 share of total aid is around 65 percent, so the G7 share of this figure is US$33 billion. They promised US$4.5 billion, leaving a shortfall of US$28.5 billion.

Oxfam reacts to Supreme Court ruling on abortion

June 25, 2022

In reaction to today’s Supreme Court ruling on abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organsation, Abby Maxman, President and CEO of Oxfam America, made the following statement:

“Today, the Supreme Court has delivered a devastating blow to the human rights of women across this country, declaring that rights to reproductive choice and health, including the right to access safe, legal abortion care, no longer exist in this country.

“While this devastating ruling impacts us all, it will fall hardest on marginalised people – poor women, women of colour, and gender-diverse people. That’s because the right to safe, legal, accessible abortion is fundamentally about reproductive justice rooted in gender, racial, and economic equality. Abortion rights in the United States will be doled out based on the privilege of who you are, where you live, how much money you have.

“Like so many rights and freedoms in this country, abortion access has long been a privilege reserved only for some. With the court removing all federal protections for abortion access, the gulf between those whose rights are real and those whose rights are out of reach, will grow exponentially. Without Roe and Casey, what remains is a disjointed and chaotic patchwork of state laws: some outlawing all abortions, others criminalising recipients and providers, and others protecting abortion access at the state level. What remains is a deepening system of inequality.

“Black and brown women and girls, trans individuals and gender-diverse people, people with disabilities, and people with irregular immigration status – all who already face systemic barriers to reproductive healthcare – will be further marginalised, their lives endangered, their futures at risk.

“The states that stand ready to outlaw abortion because of this ruling are those that already deny many supports and rights to residents. Mississippi, for example, has the highest poverty rate in the US and ranks in our index of states as the third-worst state for workers, and the fourth-worst place in the country to be a working woman. There is no mandate for equal pay, no accommodations for pregnant workers, no protections for workplace breastfeeding, and no form of paid sick leave or family leave.

“When abortion care comes with a criminal penalty, Black and brown pregnant people will be more likely than their white peers to be charged, convicted, and incarcerated, increasing their chances of poverty. Furthermore, a pregnant Black woman who is forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term will be three times more likely to die of pregnancy-related complications than a white woman. The consequences of this decision aren’t academic or theoretical—they are very real.

“Today, I take solace in the belief that Americans fundamentally believe in reproductive and human rights. And this ruling calls on all of us to organise, raise our political voices and right this wrong.”

G7 vaccines failures contribute to 600,000 preventable deaths  

June 25, 2022

Latest data suggests rich countries are likely to have already secured majority of next generation COVID vaccines 

Less than half (49 per cent) of the 2.1 billion COVID vaccine donations promised to poorer countries by G7 countries have been delivered, according to new figures published today by Oxfam and the People’s Vaccine Alliance.  

On the eve of this year’s G7 Summit, taking place in the German Alps, a new analysis shows that had the missing donated doses been shared in 2021, it could have been enough to save almost 600,000 lives in low and middle income countries, the equivalent of one every minute.

The worst offenders are the UK and Canada, who have failed to deliver anywhere near the number of vaccines they promised. Just 39 per cent of the 100 million doses the UK pledged to deliver by the end of this month have actually been delivered. While the deadline to meet their respective commitments isn’t until the end of the year, only 30 per cent of Canada’s 50.7 million doses and 46 per cent of the 1.2 billion pledged by the US have been delivered. So-called ‘Team Europe’ have collectively delivered just 56 per cent of the 700 million doses promised by the middle of 2022 and Japan has delivered 64 per cent of the 60 million doses it said it would send.  

Latest data from Airfinity suggests that rich nations may have already secured over half (55 per cent) of the new generation of Omicron-specific mRNA COVID-19 vaccines being developed by Moderna and Pfizer/ BioNTech. This is even before they have been approved for use, making it likely that many developing countries will yet again be left at the back of the queue. 

Max Lawson, Head of Inequality Policy at Oxfam and Co-Chair of the People’s Vaccine Alliance, said: “On every level, rich nations have massively betrayed poor countries when it comes to COVID vaccines. First, they stockpiled all the supply for themselves, then they promised to donate their leftovers, but hundreds of millions of these doses never materialised. 

“Rich nations are already hoarding the new generation of Omicron specific vaccines, whilst people in poorer countries will be forced to continue to face new variants with vaccines that are increasingly ineffective. The only way to fix this is to give nations the rights to make their own, not rely on rich countries to pass on doses they no longer need and deliver too late for the millions who have died.” 

New data published yesterday by Imperial College London found that 599,300 deaths could have been averted in 2021 had 40 per cent of people in all countries been fully vaccinated. The billion missing doses that G7 countries failed to deliver would have been enough to reach this target. Nearly all these preventable deaths were in low- and middle-income countries.  

To date only 14 per cent of people in low-income countries and 18 per cent of people on the African continent are fully vaccinated – far from the target to have 70 per cent coverage in all nations by the middle of the year.  Despite such low vaccine coverage, the Imperial College research found COVID vaccines have saved 446,400 lives in Africa and 180,300 in low-income countries

At the same time, rich nations led by the EU and UK have forced through a text at the WTO which has failed to waive intellectual property on vaccines, treatments and technology that would have enabled developing countries to produce their own generic vaccines. Instead, the text adds even more bureaucratic hurdles and further protects the hugely profitable monopolies of firms such as Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. The People’s Vaccine Alliance is calling on all countries facing shortages of vaccines, tests and treatments to save lives and end the pandemic by using all trade rule flexibilities available and circumventing WTO rules if necessary. They say the G7 and other rich countries must not stand in their way.

The campaign groups also say that the model of leaving developing countries to rely on donations in order to vaccinate people is completely flawed and actually leads to frustration and mistrust.  

Julia Kosgei, Policy Advisor at The People’s Vaccine Alliance said: “Hundreds of thousands of lives have been saved in Africa by the vaccines, but so many more deaths could have been prevented. Vaccination programs have worked best when doses have arrived on time, allowing governments to plan and scale up distribution. But many countries waited a year to get their first doses. When doses finally arrived, they came all at once, often close to their expiry date, which is totally unmanageable and unfair for countries that have already struggling health systems. 

“Developing countries do not want to have to wait for leftovers, they want the reliability and dignity of being able to produce their own doses. It is a disgrace that rich countries stalled negotiations on an IP waiver to scale up vaccine production across the world so that pharmaceutical corporations could maximise profits while people died without access. To add insult to injury they couldn’t even be bothered to ensure timely access to the doses they didn’t even need. 

“Rich countries have demonstrated that they cannot be trusted to act in the interests of public health for everyone, everywhere – it’s time for leaders from the global south to take matters into their own hands. We hope that governments will do whatever is needed to protect their populations – whether that is using flexibilities in global intellectual property rules or circumventing them to save lives. Rich countries must not get in their way.” 

Previous research by the People’s Vaccine Alliance found that vaccine monopolies are making it five times more expensive to vaccinate the world, while Moderna and Pfizer / BioNTech are making over US$1,000 profit every second from COVID vaccines. 

Notes to editors: 

On Saturday 25 June an Oxfam ‘Big Heads’ photo opportunity will be taking place from 10.30am local time in Munich. Campaigners dressed as G7 leaders in hiking outfits will have to choose the right path to fight the COVID pandemic, standing at a big signpost with two directions, towards “Corporate profits” or “Saving lives”. For more information, please see the Media Advisory: https://oxfam.app.box.com/s/eg10zdy3w7x7rwbwwnouvx50ey2u4klz 

G7 donations 

The figures for the deliveries of donated vaccines to date were sourced from Airfinity’s non-public database, on 9^th June 2022. Pledges are sourced below and are a combination of the pledges made at the 2021 G7 summit as well as subsequent commitments and only includes physical dose donations. 1,071,932,390 pledged Covid-19 doses are yet to be delivered. 

Country name	Total deliveries to date of COVID-19 vaccine doses	Pledged	%	By when	Pledge source
Canada	15,441,410	50,700,000	30%	End of 2022	ⁱ
Japan	38,477,570	60,000,000	64%	Not stated	ⁱⁱ
United Kingdom	39,090,930	100,000,000	39%	By June 2022	ⁱⁱⁱ
United States	550,668,340	1,200,000,000	46%	before 2023	^iv
Team Europe	395,089,360	700,000,000	56%	mid-2022	^v
Total	1,038,767,610	2,110,700,000	49%

Country	Delivered	Pledged	%	By when	Pledge source
France	67,943,110	120,000,000	57%	Middle of 2022	^vi
Germany	116,316,360	175,000,000	66%	End of 2022	^vii
Italy	56,112,160	100,700,000	56%	Not stated	^viii

Team Europe is the vaccine initiative that includes all EU Member States as well as in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. Individual EU countries have made their own pledges which are part of the 700 million dose target. 

Preventable deaths 

A new study published on 23 June by Imperial College London, found that between 8^th December 2020 to 8^th December 2021, 599,300 additional deaths would have been averted if countries had met the WHO target of 40% of all populations being fully vaccinated.  

Income group	Number of deaths that could have been averted at 40% target
High Income	20
Upper middle income	51,110
Lower middle income	347,500
Low income	200,000

There are 525,600 minutes in a year and so there were 1.14 preventable deaths per minute in low- and middle-income countries.  Taking into account those who are partially and fully vaccinated, according to data from Our World in Data, analyzed by Oxfam, 961,963,161 doses were needed in low- and middle-income countries at the end of 2022 to reach the 40% target – assuming everyone has two vaccine doses. The missing doses pledge by G7 countries is 1,071,932,390. The deaths averted assumes that the G7 would have met their pledges during 2021 – many of the pledges are for delivery by the end of 2022. 

Omicron specific vaccines  

Analysis of the vaccine orders made with vaccine manufactures and projected production of new generation Omicron-specific mRNA vaccines for 2022 according to Airfinity found an estimated 61% of Pfizer / BioNTech’s projected 409 million new Omicron-specific mRNA vaccines and 36% of Moderna’s projected 113 million new generation Omicron-specific mRNA vaccines will ship to high-income countries – assuming new vaccines produced this year are distributed in the same proportions as overall 2022 supply proportions – for a total of 55% of overall supply of new generation mRNA COVID-19 vaccines going to high-income countries in 2022.  

Cost of vaccine monopolies  

The Great Vaccine Robbery report sets out the excessive prices being charged by some pharmaceutical companies for Covid-19 vaccines.  Oxfam calculated that Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna make US$1,000 profit every second.