NEW YORK, New York – The Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne on Friday reiterated a call made earlier this week, at the first World Health Organization (WHO) forum for Small Island Development States (SIDS) on Health, for the health and well-being of SIDS to be classified as a global human right.
While presenting the opening statement, at a virtual joint press conference on Friday with WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Browne said that this view should be universally acceptable within the United Nations system and other development partners.
“This Outcome Statement requires action by all and hinges on urgent intervention in addressing the unique vulnerability of SIDS and the inequalities that stand as obstacles to our development,” the Antiguan leader said.
“It also firmly establishes health at the heart of climate action and the need to develop climate resilient health systems,” he added.
Browne, who is the chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, said that health and economic resilience cannot be achieved by SIDS without the assistance of the international community.
He said that new inclusive funding mechanisms for sustainable financing should be developed to include debt for climate swaps and obligatory, compensatory financial instruments for loss and damage, as a result of damage from climate change disasters and for adaptation and mitigation.
“Eligibility for financing should be inclusive and based on vulnerability,” the prime minister said. “To this end, the outcome statement reiterates the call for the development of a multi-dimensional vulnerability index to replace the flawed, per capita income criterion.”
While the outcome document also calls for ambitious measures to combat climate change and to protect the natural environment, Browne added that “profligate users of fossil fuels, who have contributed to global warming and pollution, whose adverse climate actions have resulted in loss and damages in SIDS, should be legally obligated to make financial reparations for the damages.
“This compensation, should include debt write-offs for SIDS that have had to borrow repeatedly to rebuild from climate damage, resulting in unsustainable debt burdens,” he urged.
Browne noted that the outcome document addresses the burdens of malnutrition and undernutrition, necessitating interventions to ensure food security and adequate nutrition.
The document also recommends pooled procurement among SIDS, especially for medicines and medical supplies to reduce costs.
The Antigua and Barbuda prime minister said pooled procurement has been successfully practiced in the sub-regional Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) for decades.
He said while SIDS are small, “our dreams and goals extend beyond our borders,” stating that SIDS have led many global initiatives “that often times served as the anchor to many international agreements.
“We placed NCDs (non-communicable diseases) on the global stage, as our countries are particularly affected by NCDs, with unacceptably high rates of morbidity and mortality,” Browne said. “We led the charge for, one-point-five to stay alive, as climate change disproportionately affects SIDS more than any other.”
But he said development challenges – such as pandemics and diseases; climate change and disasters; economic instability; and lack of global economic opportunities – “compound the vulnerability of SIDS and inhibit our overall development.
“Despite these challenges, our countries are innovators and movers,” Browne said, adding that Antigua and Barbuda and other SIDS were among the first to have eliminated mother to child transmission of HIV.
He noted that Cuba is a leader in healthcare and medicines, and that many other SIDS are promoting the concept of universal healthcare, “with significant success, despite their fiscal constraints.
“While we can list a few accomplishments, the world sometimes turns its back on us – more times than often,” Browne lamented, stating that COVID-19 is “a prime example.”
He said that, despite the good effort of the COVAX facility, developed partners are still not doing enough.
With the economic onslaught of the pandemic, Browne said SIDS have limited access to vaccines, and travel and trade have been curtailed, inflicting “great wounds on our economies.
“We now run the risk of disintegrating into economic sclerosis, eroding decades of hard-won gains,” he warned. “Our tourism industry is all but at a standstill, our economies are shattered, and there is much anxiety amongst our countries of the possibility of a protracted pandemic.
“It is, therefore, our hope that the WHO can begin the process of a pandemic and global health toolkit that is tailored for SIDS,” he said.
To achieve the objectives of this Outcome Statement, Browne urged commitment to “take bold actions, recognizing the interconnectedness of the human health of SIDS and sustainable development.”
He said this requires tackling the social determinants for healthy SIDS, while promoting economic resilience for countries.
The Antigua and Barbuda prime minister thanked Dr. Tedros for his “exemplary global leadership, during this most challenging period, and I thank him for his commitment and advocacy on behalf of SIDS.”
Browne welcomed the recommendation for the establishment of a SIDS Leaders Group on Health for high level advocacy, charging everyone to “use this Summit Outcome Statement as a rallying call in addressing the health challenges of SIDS.”
