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Plans to speed up vaccine development to prevent future pandemics and save lives will be boosted by a UK-hosted summit to raise investment from the international community.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and Health Secretary Matt Hancock have announced today (Friday 30 April) that the UK will host the replenishment summit in 2022 to support the work of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
CEPI works to speed up the development of vaccines for emerging infectious diseases, like COVID-19, and enable equitable access to these vaccines globally.
CEPI’s 5-year strategy, published last month, aims to reduce or even eliminate the future risk of pandemics and epidemics, potentially averting millions of deaths and trillions of dollars in economic damage. CEPI’s ambitions include cutting vaccine development timelines down to 100 days – about a third of the time that it took the world to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. The Prime Minister backed this goal ahead of February’s G7 leaders’ meeting.
This is supported by the UK Government’s new Pandemic Preparedness Partnership (PPP) to save lives from future diseases and prevent another pandemic. The PPP was formed in April and will advise the UK G7 Presidency on how to meet the Prime Minister’s ambition to slash the time to develop and deploy high quality vaccines, backed by additional funding to support CEPI’s work on global vaccine development and manufacturing innovations.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said:
UK scientists and researchers have led pioneering work to create life-saving vaccines, now being rolled out in the UK and around the world.
But ultimately, we need to be prepared for future pandemics. As we set out in the Integrated Review, we all need to work together to solve this global challenge.
CEPI’s work will help build a safer world for us all.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said:
Global health is at the heart of the UK’s G7 presidency. No one is safe until we’re all safe and this last week has seen more global cases of COVID-19 that at any point in the pandemic. We must all work together to strengthen health security.
The UK’s leadership in developing a vaccine that can be used around the world has been vital in the fight against COVID-19. We look forward to working with CEPI to speed up vaccine development, creating a global solution to ensure we’re better prepared for future pandemics.
Dr Richard Hatchett, CEO of CEPI, said:
The UK Government, through its foresight, leadership, and generous financial support, has enabled CEPI, and the world, to accelerate the development of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines. I and all of my CEPI colleagues are thus honored and deeply grateful that the UK Government has today announced that it will host our replenishment process.
We will, to be sure, face many challenges as we work to end the pandemic globally, and we cannot allow the emerging variants or other new challenges to threaten or impede the precious progress we have made. But even as we struggle with the challenges immediately in front of us, we must also think about the long game and lay the foundations for a safer future.
Now is a moment to capitalise on the rare alignment of political will, practical experience, and technical and scientific progress emerging from COVID-19 to prevent such devastation happening again. CEPI has laid out an ambitious plan that aims to dramatically reduce or eliminate the risk of future pandemics and the UK has embraced the central pillar of that plan – the aspiration to compress vaccine development timelines to as little as 100 days – as part of its G7 agenda.
The United Kingdom has extraordinary human and institutional resources and an incredible record of scientific accomplishment and innovation. We take great pride in partnering with them to begin building a better, safer, more equitable future.
The announcement comes ahead of the UK-hosted G7 Foreign and Development Ministers meeting on 3-5 May, where global health will be on the agenda. As part of the UK’s G7 presidency this year, the Government is working with G7 leaders and countries across the world to ensure lessons are learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic in order to build back better. This means working collaboratively to strengthen collective defences and build a global health system, meaning the world can be better protected against future pandemics.
The UK has been leading the international response to the COVID-19 pandemic, using its diplomatic weight and development expertise to help develop and distribute vaccines, support the global economy and encourage international collaboration. It is one of the largest donors to the COVAX AMC, providing £548 million for the scheme. COVAX has so far shipped over 49 million COVID-19 vaccines to 120 countries and territories. CEPI played a vital role in the formation of COVAX and co-leads the initiative alongside the World Health Organization, Gavi, and Unicef.
Earlier this year, the UK also secured a UN Security Council resolution, sponsored by 112 countries, for ceasefires in conflict zones to allow vaccine deliveries to some of the world’s most vulnerable people.
To help with their mission to end future pandemics, the Government has already provided £276m to CEPI since 2018.
As the recent Integrated Review set out, the UK is committed to solving global challenges, including helping the world to beat COVID-19 by accelerating equitable access to vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics worldwide while also investing in the latest science and technology.
NOTES TO EDITORS
Shortlists of four influential artists to design national monument at London Waterloo station unveiled
Designs will be showcased around the country this summer
Winning design expected to be unveiled on Windrush Day 2022
The four artists in the running to design the national Windrush Monument at Waterloo station have been revealed today (30 April 2021).
The Windrush Monument will be a permanent tribute to a generation of arrivals from the Caribbean to Britain – from the arrival of MV Empire Windrush in 1948 and in the decades that followed.
It will recognise how the Windrush Generation have enriched our nation’s history and made invaluable contributions to all aspects of British life, from our health and transport services to our politics, businesses, literature and culture.
The four artists shortlisted to design the monument are all of Caribbean descent and include world renowned, established and up and coming artists working across the visual arts.
The four artists chosen to make up the final shortlist are:
Sculptor and painter Basil Watson has designed public sculptures and monuments across the world including statues of Martin Luther King, Usain Bolt and Merlene Ottey. He was awarded the Order of Distinction (Commander Class) in 2016 by the Jamaican government in recognition of his artistic accomplishments. His family is part of the Windrush Generation.
Jeannette Ehlers uses a mixture of photography, video, installation, sculpture and performance in her work. Her work addresses complex questions about memory, race and colonialism, influenced by her Danish Trinidadian heritage. In 2018 Ehlers was the co-creator of a significant public memorial in Copenhagen to Mary Thomas (a 19th century slavery freedom fighter), in collaboration with the Crucian artist La Vaughn Belle.
Daughter of Windrush generation pioneers, Valda Jackson works in sculpture, painting, printmaking and moving image creating complex narratives that reflect and question our past and present with intent on influencing our future. In 2017, her collaborative public art practice ‘Jackson and Harris’ won the Marsh Award for excellence in Public Sculpture from the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association.
Recently commissioned by Hackney Council to create a permanent sculpture honouring Hackney’s Windrush Generation, Thomas J Price has significant experience of creating public artwork. The British-Jamaican artist works across sculpture, film and photography focussing on representation and perception in society.
London Waterloo station is strongly associated with the stories of many members of the Windrush Generation. It stands at a point where thousands of Windrush pioneers first arrived in London before starting new lives across the UK.
The monument will be an ambitious public artwork that stands as a testament to the contribution of Caribbean pioneers in communities across the United Kingdom. It will create a permanent place of reflection and inspiration and be a visible statement of our shared history and heritage.
The artists unveiled today were selected by the Windrush Commemoration Committee (WCC), chaired by Baroness Floella Benjamin DBE.
Chair of the Windrush Commemoration Committee Baroness Floella Benjamin DBE said:
We are entering a really exciting stage of this project with the realisation of the monument just round the corner.
Our shortlist contains a vibrant mix of talented artists, all with lived experience of the Windrush legacy and we will now see proposals developed into a vision for the national monument to the Windrush Generation in London Waterloo station.
The monument will be a permanent place of reflection and inspiration for Caribbean communities and the wider public, especially children. It will act as a symbolic link to our past, and a permanent reminder of our shared history and heritage for generations to come.
Hear more from Baroness Benjamin.
Communities Minister Lord Greenhalgh said:
Over 70 years ago, when the first passengers on MV Windrush disembarked at Tilbury Docks, it marked an extraordinary moment in the history of modern Britain.
The Windrush generation and their descendants have gone on to play an important role in every area of British life, helping to shape the society we are so proud of today.
I look forward to seeing the designs that these exciting artists will produce to celebrate and honour their contribution to our nation’s vibrant history, right at the centre of our nation’s capital.
The artists will now be asked to develop their ideas into a maquette, model or drawings to illustrate their design. Each shortlisted artist will present their proposal via a short film, which will be shared nationally with a focus on the British Caribbean community.
UP Projects were appointed by MHCLG to manage the selection process and ensure the views of the Caribbean community in the UK were sought on what would represent a meaningful legacy.
A long list of 16 artists who matched the criteria of the artistic brief was put forward to the Windrush Commemoration Committee, chaired by Baroness Floella Benjamin DBE.
Over the summer the public will be encouraged to consider the proposals. UP Projects’ team includes a Caribbean Networks Consultant and a Curator & Caribbean Community Engagement Consultant, who will liaise with the Caribbean community as a major part of the public engagement strategy. This will ensure that a meaningful monument is commissioned to represent the Windrush Generation. Their views will be taken into consideration by the WCC as they make their final selection.
The winning design is planned to be revealed in Black History Month in October and the monument is expected to be unveiled on Windrush Day 2022.
See more information on selecting an artist for the Windrush monument.
Over 250 international and British cultural leaders, curators and leaders in the Caribbean community were invited to nominate artists who have the ability and experience to create a significant civic monument. Over 100 artists were nominated, a quarter of whom were invited to express an interest and a longlist of artists, all of Caribbean heritage and many of whom have lived experience of the Windrush legacy, was created.
The longlist comprised a rich and diverse range of 16 artists, all of Caribbean heritage, based internationally and in the UK, from London and from regional cities. The artists represented a range of artforms and approaches including multi-media installation, film, performance as well as sculpture, including Sonia Barrett, Christopher Cozier, Ebony G Patterson, Dominique White and Alberta Whittle.
Key facts and figures:
MHCLG announced a £1 million budget towards a Windrush monument to be constructed within London Waterloo station.
The location within Waterloo station is on the upper concourse, adjacent to Victory Arch, Exit 5 of the station. The site is opposite Platform 19.
The Windrush Generation has come to be defined as those people who emigrated from the Caribbean to Britain between the arrival of the MV Empire Windrush on 22 June 1948 and the Immigration Act 1971. The monument will be a tribute to them, their descendants, and the wider British Caribbean community.
UP Projects curates and commissions contemporary art in the public domain. Founded in 2002 by Emma Underhill, the charity’s mission is to support artists to make new work that has social relevance, encourages learning and enriches the public sphere.
UP Projects makes work that is relevant to the places they work in and people that they work with. They take time to understand who their diverse audiences are, and what their needs and aspirations are. UP Projects works collaboratively with a broad range of both public and private-sector partners including major public bodies, significant cultural institutions, cultural festivals, and research and learning facilities. Collaboration is central to the work that UP Projects do and the way that they work.
2019 saw the first national Windrush Day take place, with activities and events taking place up and down the country. Through educational workshops, theatre performances and historical exhibitions communities honoured that landmark day over 70 years ago when the Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury Docks.
The government is committed to building on the success of Windrush Day 2019 and 2020 and embedding 22 June in the national conscience, ensuring we continue to honour and recognise the outstanding resilience, innovation and creativity of the Windrush Generation and their descendants.
Image credit: Basil Watson
It is exciting, and I feel privileged that I now have this opportunity to express the aspirations, vision and courage of my parents who took the long sea voyage to England in 1952 as part of that Windrush generation in search of a brighter future.
Image credit: Roar Studio, Milan
Working with hybridity and pan-Africanism I have long been interested in looking further into that crucial British Caribbean part of my heritage. It will be an honour and a thrilling challenge for me to get in touch with the British Caribbean Community. I have a great deal of experience with large-scale public works of art that speak to a global audience and bring to the fore the importance of Afro-Caribbean presence and narratives in the public space
Image credit: TJ Price
As the child of a Jamaican father and English mother I have for many years been making artworks that seek to examine the notion of monumental sculpture and address the imbalance of representation within society, which makes being shortlisted for the Windrush Monument Commission feel like a very significant honour.
Image credit: Georgia Jackson
As a daughter of the Windrush generation it is an honour to be considered to create a sculpture that celebrates the unique and profound contribution made by Caribbean and Commonwealth people to the life and culture of Britain.
Your excellencies, esteemed colleagues.
It’s an honour to join this important conversation today.
For me, some of the scariest moments of this pandemic were right at the start, when we were dealing with so many unknowns.
Before it was even called COVID-19, what we saw was a novel threat to the world’s health.
We didn’t yet know how to treat it and it was far from certain that we would ever have a successful vaccine.
We owe so much of our progress against this deadly disease to the power and ingenuity of science and modern medicine.
But if we fail to act on antimicrobial resistance, modern medicine as we know it can cease to exist.
And the silent pandemic of AMR could have consequences far more deadly than COVID.
In my view, it’s an existential threat as great as climate change.
We must remind ourselves of what it’s like to be faced with an untreatable disease and never forget that feeling, so we don’t ever have to face it again.
We need governments to recognise this and act now. And I pledge to do that.
We need to get better at how we use existing antibiotics, whether for humans or for animals.
We need to develop new antibiotics.
We need to make sure the supply chain is safe and shared, with shared global standards.
And crucially, we need to think always about the One Health interactions between humans, animals and the environment we all share.
Because this pandemic has reminded us that when we don’t get this right, we are all vulnerable.
So we must act together.
The UK is determined to use our presidency of the G7 this year to bring partners together and take bold new steps on AMR.
We’re determined to play our part, including through our international funding. The Fleming Fund is helping 24 countries develop their surveillance and systems for infection and AMR.
And we very recently granted an additional £1.3 million of UK investment to the tripartite multi-partner trust fund on AMR, on top of our existing investments.
We’re looking forward to working with any partner who shares our desire for ever more creative ways of addressing the threat of AMR.
And it’s especially important AMR is at the heart of the conversations at the upcoming COP26 and UN Food Systems summits.
So on behalf of the government of the United Kingdom, I welcome and fully endorse today’s call to action on AMR, because we have so much still to do together – learning from the lessons of this pandemic and learning those lessons quickly.
Working across human, animal and environmental health to make sure that we tackle the next pandemic, so generations ahead of us will have the modern medicine that we are able to benefit from today.
Laws to protect our NHS, drive jobs and investment, and regain control over our trade and borders have been delivered by Government in a period which saw the UK become an independent nation outside the EU and face a global pandemic.
While taking action to save lives and livelihoods, the Government has continued to deliver laws to unite and level up the country.
This Government’s record funding commitment for NHS frontline services was put into law, guaranteeing the biggest cash boost in history for the years ahead, while legislation also secured faster and safer access to patients for innovative medicines.
Following the UK’s departure from the EU and the end of the transition period, the Government has also delivered laws so that the UK can take advantage of the opportunities ahead as an independent sovereign nation.
Legislation passed in this session has established the legal framework to help us to strike new trade deals around the world, free British farmers from the unfair, bureaucratic Common Agricultural Policy, regain control over our borders and decide who fishes in our waters and under what terms.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said:
This Parliament has been witness to an extraordinary chapter in the UK’s history, spanning the new freedoms we’ve gained as a sovereign nation outside the EU to the impacts of a global pandemic.
The changes we’ve delivered have allowed us to take rapid action to protect our country from coronavirus and will make our country stronger, fairer, safer and greener.
But there is much more to do – and I will remain laser-focused on delivering the people’s priorities as we work to unite, level up and increase opportunity all across the UK.
Tougher sentences for the most serious crimes and landmark legislation to tackle the devastating impact of domestic abuse were also approved, helping to protect the public, cut crime and make sure that the UK builds back safer from the pandemic.
Hundreds of powers were returned to the devolved administrations after the end of the transition period, coming alongside legislation to drive prosperity in all parts of the UK through measures to fund projects, improve vital infrastructure and drive shared economic growth.
In the face of an unprecedented global pandemic, the Government has delivered laws to ensure that the right measures were in place to protect the health and safety of the nation and support lives and livelihoods.
This included protecting jobs through billions of financial support, providing affordable loans, business rates relief and increasing flexibilities in planning to help businesses provide for social distancing, as well as making sure that the NHS was able to provide care for all those in need.
44 Government Bills were passed during the session. Over 1,400 pieces of secondary legislation were also approved by Parliament, as well as a number of Private Members’ Bills.
The State Opening of Parliament will take place on Tuesday 11 May, where Her Majesty’s Most Gracious Speech will set out the Government’s agenda for the next parliamentary session and new plans to build back better.