BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley has endorsed the report of The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, describing it as “timely and excellent work”.

The co-chairs of the Independent Panel, former President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark, presented their findings and recommendations for action to curb the COVID-19 pandemic, on Wednesday.

Mottley said the findings and recommendations of the report “are exactly what is needed” to help the world come closer to winning the battle with COVID-19.

“Barbados and other countries like mine have been calling on the international community for urgent global action. We believe that many of the challenges have been addressed in this report.

“In the immediate, the global community cannot effectively address these challenges without addressing vaccine equity; technology transfer and other trade-related issues; international financial support in the fight against the pandemic, and the post-pandemic economic recovery, which must be green, resilient and inclusive,” the prime minister suggested.

She stressed that countries must have the fiscal space to pursue that post-pandemic recovery, which must be financed.

In thanking the panel for the comprehensive recommendations, Mottley again called for global leadership in the COVID fight.

“Now is the time for global leadership, and in fact, now is the time for the convening of an urgent global summit, so that we can put these issues behind us and get on to the business of stopping people from dying from COVID, and allowing countries to resume the path to development and recovery,” she insisted.

Prime Minister Mottley expressed Barbados’ commitment to playing its part.