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The largest economies seek to prevent a crisis due to another pandemic, which is why they launched a fund involving foundations and more than 20 countries.
The Group of the 20 richest countries in the world raised 1.4 billion dollars for a global fund to prevent future pandemics such as the one experienced with Covid-19, which left more than 6.6 million dead and paralyzed the world economy.
According to Bloomberg, the World Bank will manage the fund to help low- and middle-income countries prevent and cope with future pandemics, with the commitment of more than 20 donor countries, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation, among others.
“The amount that has accumulated so far is just the starting figure,” said Sri Mulyani Indrawati, finance minister of Indonesia, the host country and head of the G-20 summit. “The estimated need is up to 31,000 million dollars, but this will not be the only instrument related to the preparation of the health system,” he added.
Since last year, the G-20 began working on the creation of the fund under the presidency of Italy, when countries were struggling to find enough money to fight the pandemic, with a deficit of up to 16,000 million dollars, according to the World Health Organization.
Three years after the outbreak of Covid-19, Indonesia, the largest economy in Southeast Asia, is pushing for equal access to the global health infrastructure, one of its priorities at the G-20 meetings. That includes getting countries to harmonize health protocols and distribute research and manufacturing capacity for medical products.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo explained that 24 countries participate in this fund and its objective is to “avoid a pandemic and prepare for it.” “But it is not enough,” declared Widodo, and warned that at least 31,000 million dollars are required.
“We must ensure that the community can withstand a pandemic. A pandemic cannot take lives and break the joints of the world economy,” he added.
The launch was led by the G20 Health and Finance Ministers, and was attended by WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and World Bank President David Malpass.
With Bloomberg and AFP
