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By Kester Kenn Klomegah*
MOSCOW (IDN) — More and more African countries are registering Russia's Sputnik V vaccine. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said in a statement that Angola, Djibouti and the Republic of Congo (DRC) have officially authorized Russia's coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V for mass use to fight the COVID-19 in their respective countries. It is health assistance aimed at stopping the further spread of the pandemic on the continent.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Flags are flying at half-mast in Tanzania over the passing of President John Pombe Joseph Magufuli, the country’s populist leader who passed away in the port city of Dar es Salaam on March 17 following his hospitalization for heart complications. The President was 61 years of age.
Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan announced the leader’s death on national television. Hassan is expected to be sworn in to succeed Magufuli and complete his second five-year term which he had just started after winning elections late last year. She will be Tanzania’s first female head of state.
Viewpoint by Beth Geglia*
WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) — “The life of just one person is worth more than the private property of the richest man.” This is what’s written on the Calixto Garcia public hospital in Havana Cuba as a testament to the country’s commitment to free public healthcare, and to putting people before profit. I know this about Cuba because in March, at the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, I spent a week in the ICU at Calixto Garcia. I had been hit by a speeding ambulance, and Cuban doctors saved my life, operated on me twice, and nursed me to stability before putting me on a private medical evacuation flight back to the US.
By Kester Kenn Klomegah*
MOSCOW (IDN) — Russia faces vaccine production challenges to meet the increasing market demand and to make prompt delivery on its current pledges to external countries. As vaccine production and distribution intensifies, rivalry and competition strengthen and the fight for market share and its associated disinformation abound worldwide.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly indicated that in order to boost sustainable supplies, the country has to build its domestic production capacity while, at the same time, searching for production partnership in foreign countries.
Viewpoint by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana
The writer is United Nations-Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP).
BANGKOK (IDN) — The COVID-19 crisis poses an unprecedented threat to development in the Asia-Pacific region that could reverse much of the hard-earned progress made in recent years. The good news is we know how to tackle this challenge. Recovery from the pandemic and our global efforts to deliver the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 must go hand-in-hand. The Goals provide a compass to navigate this crisis, faster and greener, everywhere and for everyone.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — The first African woman to lead the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, is facing her first test of leadership as the leaders of poor and rich nations spar over the rights to generic versions of the COVID-19 vaccine, currently held by the rich nations.
In the current debate, over 80 developing countries led by South Africa and India are demanding a waiver of patent rights in order to boost the production of COVID-19 vaccines for poor nations. Blocking them are the richer members of the world trade group.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Tanzania is missing a president. John Magufuli, a pandemic denier, has not been seen for three weeks according to reports by the opposition which place him in India with Covid.
Speaking to the BBC, Tundu Lissu, opposition leader and Member of Parliament, cited unconfirmed sources alleging that the 61-year-old president had been hospitalized in Nairobi but was transferred to a hospital in India after falling into a coma.
By Caroline Mwanga
NEW YORK (IDN) — The international community has set the goal of achieving gender equality by 2030. But UN Women, a United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women, maintains that "at the current rate of progress, gender equality will not be reached among Heads of Government until 2150, another 130 years".
This projection is based on the new data published ahead of the ten-day 65th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW65).
By Reinhard Jacobsen
BRUSSELS (IDN) — The United Nations has commended VODAN-AFRICA for their innovative approach to "data sharing and re-use under the present COVID-19 circumstances". The Virus Outbreak Data Network is a system of sharing data on Coronavirus that ensures that the information remains in the country that generated it, rather than being exported and unavailable to local doctors and scientists.
The network includes computer scientists and health data management experts, clinicians and social scientists from all of the participating countries. Presently, these include Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tunisia, Liberia and Zimbabwe.
By J Nastranis
NEW YORK (IDN) — New research has cautioned against the growing trend towards "vaccine nationalism" where countries prioritize their own vaccine needs. The study warns that in monopolizing the supply of vaccines against the Covid-19 pandemic, wealthy nations are threatening economic destruction which will hit affluent countries nearly as hard as those in the developing world.
Even if wealthy nations are fully vaccinated by the middle of this year, and poor countries largely shut out, the study concludes that the global economy would suffer losses exceeding $9 trillion, a sum greater than the annual output of Japan and Germany combined. Nearly half of those costs would be absorbed by wealthy countries like the United States, Canada and Britain.
IDN-InDepthNews offers news analyses, features, reports and viewpoints that impact the world and its peoples. It has been online since 2009. Its network spans countries around the world.