Group of 20 leaders and Pope Francis

Leaders of the 20 biggest economies opened their virtual summit on Saturday as the world continues to confront the twin crises of the pandemic and a severely weakened global economy. The leaders participating in the G-20 summit, hosted online this year by Saudi Arabia, collectively represent around 80 percent of the world’s economic output and 75 percent of international trade, according to the web site for the event.

The pandemic, which has claimed more than 1.37 million lives worldwide, has offered the G-20 leaders an opportunity to prove how they can muster international cooperation in times of an unprecedented crises. “We have a duty to rise to the challenge together during this summit and give a strong message of hope and reassurance,” Saudi Arabia’s King Salman said in the summit’s opening remarks. “I am confident that the Riyadh summit will deliver significant and decisive results and will lead to adopting economic and social policies that will restore hope and reassurance to the people of the world.”

United Nations Secretary- General Antonio Guterres said a day before the summit that while G-20 has invested $10 billion in efforts to develop vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics, another $28 billion is needed for mass manufacturing, procurement and delivery of new Covid-19 vaccines around the world. Guterres called on more G-20 nations to join COVAX, an international initiative to distribute Covid-19 vaccines to countries worldwide. The United States has declined to join under President Donald Trump.

Reuters reported that G-20 leaders will help ensure a fair distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, drugs and tests around the world. “We will spare no effort to ensure their affordable and equitable access for all people, consistent with members’ commitments to incentivize innovation,” the leaders said in a draft G-20 communiqué seen by Reuters. “We recognize the role of extensive immunization as a global public good.”

Such declarations sound good, but some quarters have reason to doubt. While G-20 countries have contributed billions of dollars toward developing a vaccine for Covid-19, they have also mostly focused on securing their own vaccine supplies. Countries such as Britain, the US, France and Germany— all G-20 member states—have directly negotiated deals with pharmaceutical companies to receive billions of doses, meaning that the vast majority of the world’s vaccine supply next year is already reserved for them.

G-20 countries, no doubt, can implement policies that can protect lives across the world by improving access to the vaccine. Poor countries, however, can only hope that policies that put this access at risk will be restrained. On April 4, 2020, the world saw how 69 governments, including India and the European Union, had banned or limited exports of face masks, personal protective equipment, medicines, and other medical goods. These practices hurt not only importers but also exporters as they raise prices, discourage investment, and provoke retaliation. Some countries have also restricted exports of certain foodstuffs. In the past, similar actions have aggravated food insecurity and increased prices.

The world’s poorest countries are extremely vulnerable to such protectionist policies. Ten exporting countries account for almost three-quarters of world exports of medical goods and nearly two-thirds of world exports of protective gear. The top 3 countries exporting medical products critical to fight the pandemic supply 65 to 80 percent of total world imports of those products. Any restrictions on exports risk leaving most of the world without access to vital supplies, with catastrophic consequences.

As the leaders of rich nations meet, Pope Francis urged young economists, entrepreneurs and business leaders to promote post-pandemic development models that involve the poor. In a videotaped message for a forum of young people in Assisi, Italy, the pope said the worst reaction once the coronavirus pandemic ends would be to “fall even more deeply into feverish consumerism and forms of selfish self-protection.” Instead, Pope Francis said, the poor should be invited to participate in discussions about creating a “different economic narrative” that he thinks is urgently needed.

Pope Francis said the future will be a “time that reminds us that we are not condemned to economic models whose immediate interest is limited to profit and promoting favorable public policies, unconcerned with their human, social and environmental cost.” He said it’s time to shun economic models focused immediately on profit. Let’s hope the G-20 leaders are listening.