The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are to take part in a world-wide event urging leaders to adopt a vaccine equity policy to help end the Covid-19 pandemic.

Harry and Meghan will join the 24-hour broadcast Global Citizen Live being staged in New York’s famous Central Park and around the world on Saturday, the event’s organisers have announced.

It will be part of a number of shows being held in cities as varied as London to Lagos by the organisation Global Citizen, with artists like Ed Sheeran, Sir Elton John, Kylie Minogue, Metallica and Coldplay scheduled to perform.

The Global Citizen Live campaign is calling on G7 countries and the European Union to share at least one billion Covid-19 vaccine doses with those most in need and support calls for a waiver on vaccine intellectual property rights.

Meghan and Harry have already taken part in a number of events to highlight the issue of vaccine equity.

In May they wrote an open letter to the chief executives of pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca urging them to redouble their support for the UN-sponsored Covax programme – the global initiative to ensure a fair distribution of Covid jabs.

They penned the letter in their roles as co-chairs of Global Citizen’s VAX LIVE: The Concert to Reunite the World, staged that month in California and attended by Harry, which called on world leaders, corporations, and philanthropists to ensure vaccines are available to all.

To mark their son Archie’s second birthday in May the couple appealed to well-wishers wanting to celebrate the anniversary to donate money to pay for Covid vaccinations in disadvantaged countries.