The Pandemic Financing Developing Countries Need
COVID-19 taught the world that establishing novel financial mechanisms in the midst of a pandemic is practically impossible. That is why multilateral development banks must develop the necessary frameworks now to ensure that low- and middle-income countries can purchase medical countermeasures at-risk, just as developed countries do.
CHICAGO – Pandemic preparedness was on the agenda at last week’s Spring Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, held in Washington, DC, a little over four years after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Millions of people died, and billions of dollars were spent in the intervening period, but some important lessons of the pandemic remain unlearned.