…says must press for vaccines to be accessible for everyone
Prime Minister, Retired Brigadier Mark Phillips
The virtual Heads of State forum for the Progress and Integration of South America (PROSUR) currently underway saw contributions from Guyana, with Prime Minister Mark Phillips urging greater regional collaboration to overcome the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Retired Brigadier Phillips, who is representing President Dr Irfaan Ali, reminded that the current COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe disruption in social systems and economies across the world. To overcome it, it will be necessary for South American countries to redirect their finances to support local health sectors.
“This means that there must be sustained advocacy for greater access to financing from international financial institutions for the building of more resilient economies. We must also continue to press for the recognition of the vaccines against this virus to be a global public good – vaccines that would be accessible to all our peoples,” Phillips said.
The Prime Minister also hailed the platform offered by PROSUR, as it allows South American leaders an opportunity to work together for the greater good and to consolidate their collective efforts.
“We have in PROSUR, a mechanism that can provide us with the opportunity to consolidate our efforts to combat not only this problem, but other issues which pose a challenge to the development of our continent – in particular migration, crime and security and climate change.”
PROSUR was launched in 2019 following division amongst Member States of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR). The regional mechanism provides a platform for the integration of South America through dialogue, coordination, and regional cooperation among the body’s eight Member States: Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, and Uruguay.
On March 22, 2019, during a meeting in Santiago, Chile, the Governments of Guyana, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru signed the Presidential Declaration on the Renewal and Strengthening of the Integration of South America (Santiago Declaration).
The declaration affirmed the will of the representative countries to “consolidate a regional space of coordination and cooperation, without exclusions, to move towards more effective integration… progress and development of the countries of South America.
Chilean President Sebastian Pinera and Colombia’s Ivan Duque had led the push for the new political grouping after more than half the members of the previous regional bloc, UNASUR, left in 2018, saying it had failed to take action on Venezuela.
The old group, UNASUR was created in 2008 when the leftist populism advocated by late former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez was at its strongest in South America. (G3)
