COVID-19 vaccine contract secrecy: How the right to information became a casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic response

This webinar shares insights and findings from the “Mapping of Freedom of Information Requests (FOIRs) for the publication of COVID-19 vaccine supply contracts” report.This empirical study examines freedom of information requests related to COVID-19 vaccine supply contracts and explores the contextual factors and strategies (legal, political and institutional strategies) that enabled or prevented the regime of vaccine contract secrecy.

Panelists:

Chiamaka Ojiako (cpo244@nyu.edu), is a lawyer and health policy professional with diverse work experience in the public, nonprofit and international development sectors. She has a Master of Public Administration in Health Policy and Management from New York University. Her work is at the intersection of law, research, policy analysis and advocacy, with a focus on addressing health system governance gaps and fostering health equity. She is the host of the weekly global health law and policy platform, Global Health Club on Clubhouse.

Uchechukwu Ngwaba (uche.ngwaba@ryerson.ca) is an Assistant Professor at Lincoln Alexander School of Law, Toronto Metropolitan University). He has also worked as a sessional lecturer in three Australian Universities (Macquarie University, Sydney; University of Western Sydney; and Deakin University, Melbourne).His research engages multi-disciplinary, comparative and socio-legal methods in exploring complex questions affecting health governance frameworks in the Global North and South. He draws appropriately from multiple disciplines (law, humanities, economics, medicine, etc.) to redefine problems outside disciplinary boundaries and explore solutions based on shared understandings of complex situations in the area of health. His work in the area of transitional justice engages Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) as a useful theoretical lens for critical internationalism to interrogate claims about universalism in the pursuit of international criminal justice, whilst pushing for better representation for the subaltern in international thought and action.

Chair:

Prince Agwu holds an academic position at the University of Dundee. He is a Guest Lecturer at the University of Oxford, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Health Policy Research Group, University of Nigeria. He holds a PhD in Social Policy that was funded by a Commonwealth Split-site scholarship arrangment at the Universities of Nigeria and Dundee. His research focuses on policy and governance subjects in health systems, migration, and education, which are three vital areas for his home continent - Africa. Prince has published remarkably in his field, with 56 (and counting) of the publications indexed in Scopus. Sci-Val ranks him among the top-350 scholars in Nigeria, his home country with over 170 universities, and top-150 at the University of Dundee. Prince is an Editor for Health Research Policy and Systems (HRPS), which is co-published by the World Health Organisation, the first African Section Editor for Social Work and Social Sciences Review (SWSSR), Editor for Health Economics, Policy and Law (HEPL), and a former Academic Editor with PLoS ONE.

Webinar Recording

About the TWG AAA

The Thematic Working Group on Action on Accountability and Anti-corruption for SDGs (TWG AAA) is dedicated to exploring and addressing the root causes of weak accountability and corruption in health systems, with a particular focus on the systemic structures that allow these challenges to persist. The group champions effective governance as a cornerstone for sustainable development and the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

Find out more about their work and how to join the group on the dedicated TWG AAA page.