Good morning, this is Pip. Today, we’re hearing about a hopeful new deal brokered between pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and a UN-backed group to get an innovative Covid treatment to poorer countries.

We also take a look at a plan released by over 50 countries for boosting cooperation on trade and the environmental challenges, and we’re pondering why Cop26 has left humanitarians wanting more.

17.11.2021

On our radar

A person walks past Pfizer's headquarters in New York, USA, November 2021. (Keystone/EPA/Justin Lane)

💊Pfizer reaches deal with UN-backed group to get cheaper Covid pills to low-income countries. The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced on Tuesday it has signed a licensing deal with the Geneva-based Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) that will allow manufacturers to supply its experimental oral Covid-19 antiviral treatment to 95 low and middle-income countries.

Geneva Solutions (EN)

📦 MC12: Countries call for greater cooperation on trade and environment. A group of 57 countries, including China, the European Union and the United States, have laid out a draft roadmap for intensifying talks on how trade policy can protect the planet and tackle climate change. The draft ministerial statement is set to be adopted ahead of the World Trade Organization’s ministerial meeting at the end of this month.

Geneva Solutions (EN)

Here’s what else is happening

Why Cop26 leaves humanitarians wanting more.
The New Humanitarians (EN)
Tigray: UN concerned by arbitrary detentions in Ethiopia.
OHCHR (EN)
Tobacco use keeps declining as WHO urges cessation support.
Bloomberg (EN)
Biden-Xi talks: China warns US about 'playing with fire' on Taiwan.
BBC (EN)
Poland uses water cannon against refugees and migrants at Belarus border.
AP News (EN)

Image of the day

Students eating lunch at a school in Haiti. (UN photo/Leonora Baumann)

New plan to get school meals to every child in need by 2030. School meal programmes keep children, especially girls, in school, help them learn better and improve overall health levels. But even before the pandemic school-closures, 73 million children were left out of these programmes, and 370 million lost access to daily school meals when Covid-19 kept them out of classrooms. In response, 61 governments and 50 partner organisations including UNICEF, the World Food Programme (WFP) and WHO have launched the School Meals Coalition in an effort to restore school meal programmes around the world.

Global Citizen (EN)

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