Lincoln University’s Yunus Social Business Centre (LU-YSBC) is backing an international appeal to declare COVID-19 vaccines as a Global Common Good, free from any patent right.
Nobel Laureates and Nobel Laureates Organisations, civil society leaders and world moral leaders from all over the globe have signed a letter petitioning for a right to free access to a vaccine, far ahead of its actual production and distribution.
They appeal to governments, foundations, charity organisations, philanthropists and social businesses to agree.
There is currently a vast network of Yunus Social Business Centres, which initiated the letter, spread across 84 universities around the world.
The YSBC was the brainchild of Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus , who is a signatory of the petition. He is the founder of the world-renown Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, which helps alleviate poverty through microfinancing and lending to the country’s poor without the need for collateral.
The LU-YSBC is New Zealand’s only centre, located within Lincoln University’s Faculty of Agribusiness and Commerce. It builds on Lincoln’s international reputation in the field of economic and social development, which includes the Lincoln University Centre for International Development (LUCID), postgraduate supervision and the work of staff overseas.
Head of the Yunus Social Business Centre at Lincoln University, Dr Ani Kartikasari, said she would send the petition to the New Zealand Government, hoping for its support.
Find out more about Lincoln University’s Yunus Social Business Centre (LU-YSBC) and social business itself, in the two latest episodes of the webcast series Influencers@LU, on our You Tube channel.
Episode 4: What is the Yunus Social Business Centre at LU? We find out from Christopher Gan
Episode 5: What is the social business? We ask Ani
Read more about the letter on The Business Standard website.
