Pandemic Fund to Strengthen Health facilities in Poor, Middle-Income Countries Under-Funded

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Mar 7: The global initiative to create a purse for preventing the return of Covid-19-type pandemic has remained under-funded.

More than 100 poor and middle-income countries have already put in early bids for assistance from the Pandemic Fund set up under the auspices of the World Bank totalling over 5.5 billion dollars but the Fund initially has only about 300 million dollars to spend to help the these countries to prepare better for pandemics.

The demand is a sign that pandemic prevention, preparedness and response needs more money and attention, the head of the fund’s secretariat at the World Bank, Priya Basu, said.

The fund is one of a host of global initiatives being set up to help prevent a COVID-19 rerun, alongside a binding agreement being drafted by World Health Organization (WHO) member states and plans to speed up vaccine manufacturing. However, almost all of the efforts remain under-funded.

The World Bank’s pandemic fund has raised around $1.6 billion in total so far, much less than the $10 billion annual funding gap for pandemic preparedness, as estimated by the WHO and the bank. The fund has $300 million available for its first round of financing, and in February received 650 early expressions of interest from countries, regional bodies and global health organisations for the money.

The devastating human, economic, and social cost of COVID-19 has highlighted the urgent need for coordinated action to build stronger health systems and mobilize additional resources for pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response (PPR). While there are many institutions and financing mechanisms that support pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response activities, none of them is focused solely on it. This means that spending on other immediate needs can take priority over critical pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response investments some of whose return may only materialize in the future.

The Fund was set up in September, last year, realising that avoiding future pandemics would require investing substantially more in PPR and these investments, which could target gaps in surveillance, laboratory capacity, risk communication, zoonotic disease, risk management and more, would help avert the much larger costs that the world would incur in a future pandemic. The fund also aimed to bring additional, dedicated resources, incentivize countries to increase investments, enhance coordination among partners, and serve as a platform for advocacy. It would also help to focus and sustain much-needed high-level attention on strengthening health systems while complementing existing mechanisms, engaging other key organizations and supporting regional initiatives that bring countries together.

With broad support from the G20 and beyond, on June 30, 2022, the World Bank’s Board of Directors approved the proposal to establish The Pandemic Fund. The World Bank will serve as The Pandemic Fund’s trustee and host the Secretariat, which will include technical staff seconded from the WHO.

The new Pandemic Fund was to provide a dedicated stream of additional, long-term financing to strengthen critical pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response (PPR) capabilities in low and middle-income countries through investments and technical support at the national, regional, and global levels.

The Pandemic Fund was officially established by its Governing Board at its inaugural meeting on September 8-9, 2022. It was launched at a high-level event hosted by the G20 Presidency of Indonesia on the margins of the G20 Joint Finance and Health Ministers’ Meeting on November 13, 2022, in Bali, Indonesia. The Pandemic Fund Secretariat was designed to intensify their work with the Governing Board in consultation with the World Bank, WHO, CSOs and other stakeholders to help operationalize the fund and develop the results framework and priorities in the run up to the first call for proposals expected for end of January 2023.

The Fund was developed with broad support from members of the G20 and beyond. Over US$1.4 billion in financial commitments have already been announced and more are expected in the coming months. So far, commitments have been made by Australia, Canada, China, the European Commission, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Wellcome Trust.

Parties now have until May 19 to draft formal proposals for the first phase, which prioritises surveillance, laboratory systems and the health workforce. “It’s clear that countries and regional entities are eager to invest more to strengthen pandemic prevention and preparedness and that much more financing will be needed for this agenda,” said Ms. Basu.

The bank has said the aim is for its first round to be a “proof of concept” and it hopes other sources of funding, for example from other global health bodies, can also be made available.