Plans have been revealed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of a $50 billion fund to see to the end of the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic.
This was contained in a ‘Proposal to End the COVID-19 Pandemic’ from IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, which emphasised the need to arrest rising human toll and economic strain from the pandemic.
The plan proposes vaccination for, at least, 40 per cent of the population in all countries by the end of this year and at least, 60 per cent by the first half of 2022.
Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, pushed for equity distribution of COVID-19 vaccines across the globe.
The IMF proposal will include grants, national government resources and concessional financing.
Georgieva said: “There is a strong case for grant financing of, at least, $35 billion. The good news is G20 governments have already identified as important to address the $22 billion grant funding gap noted by the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator. This leaves an estimated $13 billion in additional grant contributions needed.
“The remainder of the overall financing plan—around $15 billion – could come from national governments, potentially supported by COVID-19 financing facilities created by multilateral development banks.”
Georgieva said saving lives and livelihoods has justification, adding that a faster end to the pandemic could also inject the equivalent of $9 trillion into the global economy by 2025 due to a faster resumption of economic activity.
Advanced economies, likely to spend the most in this effort, would see the highest return on public investment in modern history – capturing 40 per cent of the cumulative $9 trillion in global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) gains and roughly $1 trillion in additional tax revenues.
She said: “Many countries have stepped up in the global fight against the pandemic, as have institutions such as the World Health Organisation (WHO), the World Bank, Gavi (the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization), the African Union, and others.
“Yet, more than a year into the COVID-19 crisis, new cases worldwide are higher than ever.”
Georgieva described the pandemic as a solvable problem, which requires further coordinated global action.
The IMF boss warned that economic recoveries are diverging dangerously, stressing that the disparities will widen further between wealthy countries that have widespread access to vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics, and poorer countries still struggling to inoculate frontline healthcare workers.
She said that as of the end of April, less than two per cent of Africa’s population had been vaccinated. By contrast, over 40 per cent of the population in the United States (U.S.) and over 20 per cent in Europe had received, at least, one dose of the vaccine.
