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Why a multilateral response to Covid-19 matters

One message at the United Nations General Assembly – with the United Kingdom and Singapore among the countries saying it loudest and clearest – is the need for countries to put aside differences to tackle Covid-19 together.

But one message came out loud and clear, and the United Kingdom and Singapore were among the countries saying it loudest and clearest: The need for countries to put aside differences to tackle Covid-19 together.

A man wearing a face mask in Sunderland on Oct 10. The UK is working with like-minded partners such as Singapore to strengthen institutions that can collectively fight one of the gravest challenges of our times.

A man wearing a face mask in Sunderland on Oct 10. The UK is working with like-minded partners such as Singapore to strengthen institutions that can collectively fight one of the gravest challenges of our times.

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The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York around this time of the year is typically packed with high-level meetings attended by leaders who have flown in from around the world.

This year, as with so many events, the action was online: The first ever “virtual UNGA”.

I wondered whether, without face-to-face interactions, it would be harder to get a feel for what was really driving UN members amid a global pandemic.

But one message came out loud and clear, and the United Kingdom and Singapore were among the countries saying it loudest and clearest: The need for countries to put aside differences to tackle Covid-19 together.

In his wishes to the UN on its 75th anniversary, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said: “A rules-based multilateral system, with the UN at its core, is our best hope to build a stable international environment.”

The UK agrees and we are working with like-minded partners such as Singapore to strengthen institutions that enable us to fight, collectively, one of the gravest challenges of our times.

COLLABORATING ON A GLOBAL STAGE

Clearly, there is a need to go beyond rhetoric.

As the UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said when he co-chaired (with the UN and South Africa) an UNGA event focused on vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics: “We need to back our aspirations with all the resources necessary.”

At UNGA, the UK and Singapore reiterated our shared commitment to a coordinated international Covid-19 response based on science, innovation and collaboration.

We also expressed support for the multilateral institutions driving global health collaboration: The UN, the World Health Organization (WHO) and international partners such as the vaccine alliance Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (Cepi) and the UN-led Covax Facility.

The UK and Singapore already contribute to Cepi. 

We are now working alongside each other in Covax, a collective financing mechanism that pools resources to accelerate the development of a wide portfolio of vaccine candidates and critically promote equitable access.

Singapore was active from the start on Covax and is, along with Switzerland, co-chair of a group of 14 countries (including the UK) that worked quickly to help stand up this potentially game-changing approach.

2020 continues to show us that no one is safe until everyone is safe — so vaccines can’t remain the luxury of the rich. Mass vaccine deployment will be challenging for all countries and for some it will be exceedingly difficult.

We need to support each other to achieve this.

Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan stressed this in his statement to UNGA delegates: “What we need now is more global cooperation, not less.”

This is the UK’s position too, and to show our commitment, we have announced a contribution of £571 million (S$1.08 billion) to Covax, of which £500 million will go towards supporting access to future vaccines for lower and middle-income countries.

SCIENTIFIC PARTNERSHIPS                                          

The UK and Singapore both take a science-led approach to global health security. British research institutions have been working with partners around the world, including in Singapore and in Southeast Asia, to urgently understand the virus, treat its impacts and prevent its spread.                                                                                                               

On Sept 30, during a historic first Foreign Ministers meeting between the UK and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), Foreign Minister Raab announced £6.3 million of new UK funding to tackle the health and economic impacts of Covid-19 across Southeast Asia. 

Delivered through the Asian Development Bank and Asean bodies, the programme will strengthen health systems in preventing, detecting and controlling the virus. It will include specialist training for health workers, establishing a regional alert system to communicate real-time Covid-19 risks between countries and support for economic recovery.                            

This additional work adds to the UK-Asean partnerships already underway across the region that support critical Covid-19 research projects in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Cambodia.

The UK’s Wellcome Trust is supporting a serological survey of Covid-19 infection risk in Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand. And Oxford University’s Covid-19 trials will identify effective treatments for patients in Vietnam.

Closer to home, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine is working with the National University of Singapore to model Covid-19 in Middle East and North African countries.

Researchers at the University of Oxford and Nanyang Technological University collaborated on a report that informed Covid-19 telemedicine guidelines, the first of its kind, for medical practitioners around the world.

Looking beyond the immediate pandemic, British researchers are also turning their attention to wider zoonotic research — spotting dangerous animal pathogens that may cross the species barrier and infect human beings.

Creating a global network of such research hubs is integral to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s five-point plan on global health security that he intends to pursue during the UK’s G7 Presidency next year.

With Singapore’s researchers actively engaged in investigating infectious diseases like Zika and Dengue, the potential for collaboration is both clear and exciting. 

OVERCOMING CHALLENGES

But it’s not all plain sailing and agreement.  There are a number of challenges to a joined-up international response to tackle CovidD-19.

Misinformation is one. Since the start of the pandemic, specialist government units like the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) in the UK have been working to identify and rebut false information about coronavirus.

The NCSC is also working closely with social media platforms to help them remove incorrect claims about the virus, including anti-vaccination narratives.

In Singapore, we’ve seen Covid-19 falsehoods debunked over the Gov.SG channels and through government agencies advisories that correct rumours and misinformation.

We need to build a better, shared understanding of the techniques used in malicious information operations, so that we can protect our populations and prevent attempts to exploit the Covid-19 outbreak.

While it might be tempting to think otherwise, the race to discover and mass produce a vaccine to defeat this virus should not be a competition between countries. 

Few countries have the capacity to go at it alone; supply chains are international, testing often requires international collaboration and a global pandemic requires a global response.

The UK is working with international partners to support the rapid development and manufacturing of safe, effective vaccines and ensure widespread equitable access to these when they become available.

My Prime Minister calls this the battle of “humanity against the virus” — a position that was reflected in Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat’s message at UNGA: “Our actions in the coming years will determine the future of our countries and of humanity for decades to come.”

The virus must not prevent international collaboration that would benefit us all. 

Singapore and the UK are working together, and with many others including the UN and WHO, to protect people, in our own countries and in others.

Collaboration is, quite simply, the only way we can win.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Kara Owen is the British High Commissioner to Singapore.

Related topics

Covid-19 coronavirus United Kingdom United Nations

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