The Impact of Global Citizen Live in Addressing the Pandemic, Hunger & Climate Challenges

International advocacy organization, Global Citizen, has announced that more than US$1.1 billion, 157 million trees, and more than 60 million COVID-19 vaccines have been pledged by various governments, NGOs, and the private sector on the back of the organisation’s month-long countdown for the G20 to address the pandemic, hunger and climate challenges, ahead of the G20 and COP26 summits.

The campaign saw 1.1 million actions and over 70 commitments, thanks to the efforts of many hard-working and dedicated partners. On Saturday, 25th September 2021, Global Citizen held a 24-hour global broadcast and streaming event with performances and speeches by artists and world leaders from Lagos, London, Los Angeles, New York City, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Seoul, Sydney and more.

While Grammy Award-winning Nigerian artist Burna Boy performed at the New York event, renowned Afrobeat singer-songwriter Femi Kuti performed in Lagos alongside his hugely talented son Made Kuti, as well as superstar acts Davido and Tiwa Savage.

The Global Citizen campaign charged world leaders, businesses and philanthropists to urgently commit resources to meet the $15-20 billion funding shortfall of the US$100 billion promised annually to the most vulnerable countries confronting climate change; businesses to help curb emissions through joining the Race to Zero and pledging 1 billion additional trees by 2022 in support of the 1t.org ambition to conserve, restore and grow one trillion trees this decade; $6 billion to provide food to 41 million people facing famine; 2 billion COVID-19 vaccines to be redistributed to low-income countries by the end of 2021; and for Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna to Share mRNA Technology with Africa.

According to a statement by Global Citizen, some of the countries and organisations that have announced commitments towards defending the planet and defeating poverty through the course of the Global Citizen Live campaign include:

• BELGIUM – pledged €6 million to CGIAR, a global partnership that unites international organizations engaged in research about food security, and €10 million to Least Developed Country Fund.
• CROATIA – pledged 200,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses, primarily through COVAX.
• EUROPEAN COMMISSION – announced €140 million towards CGIAR and €25 million to Education Cannot Wait.’
• FRANCE – committed 60 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to be delivered by Q2 2022, in addition to reallocating 20% of their Special Drawing Rights (SDRs).
• GERMANY – pledged €50 million to Education Cannot Wait.
• IRELAND – pledged 1.3 million COVID-19 vaccine doses primarily through COVAX.
• IFAD – announced $23.7 million in pledges from countries across the world, including Cameroon, Sri Lanka, Angola, Lesotho, Kenya, Nepal, Tonga, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Gabon, Kazakhstan, Solomon Islands, Guyana, Republic of Korea, Maldives, Morocco, and Uzbekistan.
• LUXEMBOURG – announced a €3.8 million commitment to UNFPA supplies.
• THE NETHERLANDS – committed to contribute an additional €25 million to the Act-Accelerator. The Netherlands also announced that they would continue their support for CGIAR, committing €75 million.
• UNESCO – announced they would scale up UNESCO’s work on gender-transformative education in 80 countries, as part of its COVID-19 response.
• UNITED STATES – pledged $295 million to stave off famine and extreme hunger, confront gender-based violence, and address the urgent humanitarian needs of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) and a Private Foundation launched a Challenge Fund of up to $50M to encourage other corporate and philanthropic donors to step up in closing the $100M funding gap for the UNFPA Supplies Partnership programme.
• The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) made a $50M commitment to UNICEF that will fund projects focused on child nutrition.
• Commitments were also announced by several private sector companies, including Access Bank in Nigeria.

In Nigeria, the Federal Government, through the Minister of Finance Zainab Ahmed, announced that it would be increasing its focus on gender and climate responsiveness in its
budgeting and policymaking processes. “We are committing to promoting double mainstreaming of gender and climate-responsive policy making in our public financial management processes by 2025.

“Working with our relevant agencies, we will also institute climate budget tagging by 2023 to raise awareness and highlight climate change-related policies across all sectors and to
assess gender and climate inclusiveness in fiscal policy implementation.”

Governor of Lagos Babajide Sanwo-Olu said that the state will commit to prioritising vaccine equity among its entire population.

Our proposal is to reserve and administer 50% of the vaccines procured in partnership with the private sector to be made available free of charge at government health centres. We propose to deploy a proven system where those who can pay for vaccines subsidize the cost of vaccination for those who cannot.

Given the fact that we expect COVID-19 vaccinations to be annual going forward, this is the only sustainable path towards achieving herd immunity and making Lagos free of the virus. With our approach, as outlined above, we expect to vaccinate 30% of the population of Lagos State within one year.

This will put us on a better and more sustainable path towards herd immunity.

Viewers across Africa have the chance to watch all the highlights from Global Citizen Live on Saturday, 2nd October at 4pm WAT/5pm CAT on Multichoice – Mnet channel 10.