By Isabelle De Lichtervelde, Senior Program Officer, Policy & Advocacy

This week, all eyes will be on the G7 leaders as they meet in Cornwall for their annual Leaders’ Summit. At the gathering, leaders of the world’s seven largest advanced economies face two choices: they can either decide to take the fight against COVID-19 to another level and agree on a comprehensive global plan to end the pandemic everywhere for everyone or choose to continue with the piecemeal approach that has characterized the global response until now, thus prolonging this crisis for those who are most vulnerable. 

G7 Health Ministers and Finance Ministers met ahead of the Summit.

• Health and Finance Ministers expressed their commitment to fully fund the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A), which still has a US$18.1 billion funding gap in 2021. Health Ministers are open to considering the extension of ACT-A into 2022 alongside efforts to strengthen supply chains and boost global vaccine manufacturing capacity. 
• Finance Ministers also expressed strong support for the new Special Drawing Rights (SDR) allocation, including a reallocation to countries in need. 
• On pandemic preparedness, while Health Ministers welcomed the upcoming special session of the World Health Assembly to consider the benefits of a pandemic treaty, Finance Ministers are looking forward to the Pandemic Preparedness Partnership’s Report to G7 Leaders and the G20 High-Level Independent Panel’s findings, and will consider their recommendations, particularly on financing mechanisms.

In parallel, progress was made regarding intellectual property rights and the impact it has on manufacturing and global supply of COVID-19 tools. The Biden Administration recently expressed its (partial) support for the World Trade Organization (WTO) COVID-19 TRIPS Waiver proposal, and the EU presented its own proposal on patents which it is introducing to the WTO.

Ultimately, both meetings’ communiqués included positive language on the global response.  While these are all steps in the right direction, eighteen months into the pandemic, we need G7 leaders to move beyond their “think big, act small” strategy. They need to think big and act fast. As they gather for the annual G7 Leadership Summit, leaders have one job: to deliver a comprehensive, coordinated roadmap that accelerates global vaccine access and delivery of vaccinations and other COVID-19 tools for everyone. This strategy should include:

• A comprehensive costing to show what it would take to achieve at least 70% vaccination coverage in all countries, including analysis to identify gaps in supply, procurement, and resources needed in-country for the delivery for vaccines, treatments, and tests. 
• A burden-sharing model to set out fair share contributions and fully fund global vaccination to reach 70% coverage as soon as possible (including fully funding ACT-A.)
• A plan to urgently address the huge vaccine supply gap in low- and middle-income countries by sharing two billion doses at the Leaders’ Summit, delivering one billion by the end of August and the second billion by the end of 2021 in coordination with COVAX.

As part of this global plan, G7 countries must urgently share vaccine doses with countries in need. G7 countries have bought three billion more doses than they need to fully vaccinate their entire population to 70%. The G7 U.K. Presidency should lead by example by committing to share 100 million doses as soon as possible before the Leaders’ Summit, and others should follow suit, in particular Team Europe and the United States.

G7 leaders can make a difference for the world this week and finally deliver the desperately needed plan to end this deadly pandemic. Let’s hope they deliver.