ONE Canada Statement in Response to G20 Communique

We applaud the G20’s stated commitment to “provide help to all countries in need of assistance”.

As the G20 Communique explained: urgent, short term steps are necessary at this time. To safeguard the future, we must strengthen national and global capacities to respond to infectious disease outbreaks.

We share the G20’s sentiment and we are gravely concerned with the serious risk posed to all countries, notably in Africa and developing countries. Africa’s health defense is a key for the resilience of global health.

As the Prime Minister said, “We can only overcome COVID19 if we take action together as a global community.” We welcome his statement that his Government is going to do “whatever it takes.”

This crisis is both a public health crisis and a global disease prevention crisis.

ONE Canada calls on our government to ensure that an adequate portion of our COVID-19 response helps address this pandemic in developing countries. CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, are both existing partners that Canada can scale up support to fight pandemics and provide vaccines to those in need.

Stuart Hickox
Canada Director
The ONE Campaign