Gates Foundation’s Annual Goalkeepers Report finds stark disparities in COVID-19 impacts

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Friday launched its fifth annual Goalkeepers Report, providing an updated global dataset that illustrated the COVID-19 pandemic’s adverse impact on progress towards the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Report, co-authored by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, shows that disparities caused by COVID-19 remains stark, with those who have been hardest hit being the slowest to recover.

The Report said because of COVID-19, an additional 31 million people were pushed into extreme poverty in 2020 compared to 2019.

It said while 90 per cent of advanced economies would regain pre-pandemic per capita income levels by next year, only a third of low- and middle-income economies are expected to do so.

“Fortunately, amidst this devastation, the world stepped up to avert some of the worst-case scenarios in last year’s Goalkeepers Report. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) predicted a drop of 14 percentage points in global vaccine coverage — effectively erasing 25 years of progress in 25 weeks,” it said.

According to the Report, new analysis from IHME demonstrated that the decline, while still unacceptable, was only half of what was anticipated.

The co-chairs highlighted the “breathtaking innovation” that was only possible because of global collaboration, commitment, and investments over decades.

They acknowledged that averting the worst-case scenarios was commendable, yet noted it was not enough to ensure a truly equitable recovery from the pandemic, and called for long-term investments in health and economies, like the ones that led to the rapid development of the COVID-19 vaccine, to propel recovery efforts and get the world back on track to meet the Global Goals.

“The past year has reinforced our belief that progress is possible but not inevitable, if we can expand upon the best of what we've seen these past 18 months, we can finally put the pandemic behind us and once again accelerate progress in addressing fundamental issues like health, hunger, and climate change,” the Report said.

It further highlighted the disproportionate economic impact that the pandemic had had on women globally in high and low-income countries alike, saying women had been harder hit than men by the global recession triggered by the pandemic.

“Women face structural barriers in every corner of the world, leaving them more vulnerable to the impacts of the pandemic. By investing in women now and addressing these inequities, governments can spur a more equitable recovery while strengthening their economies against future crises. It’s not just the right thing to do, but smart policy that will benefit everyone,” it said.

The Report also illustrated how the so-called “miracle” of COVID-19 vaccines was the result of decades of investment, policies, and partnerships that established the infrastructure, talent, and ecosystems necessary to deploy them quickly.

It said the systems that allowed for the unprecedented development and deployment of the vaccines existed primarily in wealthy countries, and as a result the world had not benefited equally.

The lack of equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines was a public health tragedy, as the world faced the very real risk that in the future, wealthy countries and communities would begin treating COVID-19 as yet another disease of poverty, it said.

“We can’t put the pandemic behind us until everyone, regardless of where they live, has access to vaccines. More than 80 per cent of all COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in high and upper-middle-income countries to date, with some securing two to three times the number needed so they can cover boosters; less than 1 per cent of doses have been administered in low-income countries,” the Report said.

It said though Africa was home to 17 per cent of the world’s population, it had less than one per cent of the world’s vaccine manufacturing capabilities and called for the world to invest in R&D, infrastructure, and innovation in places closer to the people who stood to benefit.