SPOTLIGHT on Sustainable Development 2021

The report analyzes how the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing disparities in health, wealth, and power, specifically highlighting 'vaccine apartheid' and the failure of multi-stakeholder governance. It critiques the reliance on private sector solutions for public crises and advocates for transformative policies, including the waiver of intellectual property rights for vaccines, progressive tax reforms, and the strengthening of universal public services to ensure a just recovery.

• Global vaccine distribution is characterized by extreme inequality, described as 'vaccine apartheid'. By September 1, 2021, over 50 percent of people in high-income countries had received at least one dose, compared to only 1.8 percent in low-income countries.
• Pharmaceutical companies have generated massive profits from the pandemic while production costs remain low. For mRNA vaccines, estimated production costs range from US$ 1.18 for Pfizer/BioNTech to US$ 2.88 for Moderna, yet market prices are significantly higher.
• The TRIPS waiver proposal, initiated by India, South Africa, Kenya, and Eswatini, seeks to temporarily remove patent protections for COVID-19 medical products to scale up production in the global South, but is blocked by the EU, UK, and Switzerland.
• COVAX, while intended for equitable distribution, is critiqued for its multi-stakeholder governance that marginalizes the WHO and relies on a market-based approach, selling vaccines at a discount rather than providing them for free.
• The pandemic revealed the dangers of privatized public services. In Italy, the Lombardy region, which has one of Europe's most privatized health systems, recorded a 5.7 percent COVID-19 fatality rate, compared to the national average of 2.4 percent.
• Recovery funds in the global South have disproportionately benefited large corporations. In eight of nine tracked countries, 63 percent of announced COVID-19 funds went to large corporations rather than SMEs or social protection.
• The pandemic has disproportionately impacted women's economic security. Women account for less than 40 percent of the global workforce but incurred an estimated 54 percent of job losses.
• The UN Food Systems Summit is critiqued for being driven by corporate actors and focusing on technology-driven, market-based solutions that ignore the structural causes of hunger and the climate crisis.

APA

Adams, B., Martens, J., Gopakumar, K., Gleckman, H., Dentico, N., Cibrario, D., Ellmers, B., Kohonen, M., Ackermann, M., Dreger, C., Mukherjee, V. N., Baphna, S., & Edwards, D. (2021). SPOTLIGHT on Sustainable Development 2021. Institute for Economic Justice. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Spotlight_Report_2021.pdf

Chicago

Adams, Barbara, Jens Martens, K.M. Gopakumar, Harris Gleckman, Nicoletta Dentico, Daria Cibrario, Bodo Ellmers, et al. SPOTLIGHT on Sustainable Development 2021. Institute for Economic Justice, 2021. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Spotlight_Report_2021.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{adams2021spotlight, author = {Adams, Barbara and Martens, Jens and Gopakumar, K.M. and Gleckman, Harris and Dentico, Nicoletta and Cibrario, Daria and Ellmers, Bodo and Kohonen, Matti and Ackermann, Magdalena and Dreger, Charlotte and Mukherjee, Vanita Nayak and Baphna, Shree and Edwards, David}, title = {{SPOTLIGHT on Sustainable Development 2021}}, institution = {Institute for Economic Justice}, year = {2021}, url = {https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Spotlight_Report_2021.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }