G20 aims to collect 1.5 bln USD to prevent, prepare for future pandemics

Photo taken in Brussels, Belgium on May 24, 2021 shows the live stream of the 74th World Health Assembly held at the World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

The Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF) agreed upon by health ministers of G20 members aims to build infrastructures to prevent and prepare for potential pandemics in the future.

JAKARTA, June 25 (Xinhua) -- The Group of 20 (G20) expects to collect no less than 1.5 billion U.S. dollars by the end of this year to build infrastructures to prevent and prepare for potential pandemics in the future, said Budi Gunadi Sadikin, health minister of Indonesia and the current G20 host, on Thursday.

The commitment to establishing the fund, called the Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF), was agreed upon by the health ministers of G20 members, along with the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), at the first Health Ministerial Meeting (HWG) held on June 20 to 21 in Indonesia's Yogyakarta.

Sadikin told a Thursday press briefing that as of now, several countries and a few charity foundations had pledged to donate a total of 1.1 billion dollars.

The fund will be housed by the World Bank, while the WHO will advise the implementation and allocation of the money.

Sadikin elaborated several allocation plans for the fund, including building and improving access to emergency medical countermeasures, establishing a global network of genomic surveillance labs, and building global research and manufacturing hubs.

People walk past a mural depicting health workers fighting against COVID-19 in Jakarta, Indonesia, Dec. 16, 2021. (Photo by Zulkarnain/Xinhua)

Sadikin said the money will be used to produce emergency tools needed for timely and equitable responses to future pandemics, including vaccines, therapeutics, medicines, personal protective equipment (PPE), and testing kits, that will be equally distributed to all countries once another pandemic strikes.

The minister said the G20 members agreed that they needed some connected sequence laboratories to identify and share genome sequence data from pathogens that can cause outbreaks.

"By having such connected labs we can anticipate or overcome an outbreak better. We will be able to get information faster with stronger data sharing mechanisms, then diagnose faster, then we can produce vaccines faster."

The minister said the G20 forum agreed to build several additional global research and manufacturing hubs in Southern countries for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.

Most of the countries in the Global South are underdeveloped and developing countries, which faced more difficulties in facing the pandemic and obtaining access to vaccines.

Sadikin said that the ideal countries to build the hubs were those with large populations.

Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati (2nd L, front) attends the opening ceremony of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia, Feb. 17, 2022. (Indonesian Finance Ministry/Handout via Xinhua)

"So, the Global South countries can develop and supply vaccines to their populations in a more timely and equitable way."

Local media reported that WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus directly attended the HWG, and he estimated that the financial need for strengthening global health security reached 31 billion dollars per year.

"WHO and the World Bank have estimated that we need 31 billion dollars every year to strengthen global health security. Two-thirds of that amount could come from existing resources, but that leaves a gap of 10 billion per year," he said.

Ghebreyesus suggested that the FIF be supervised by a council and an advisory panel that would be supported by the joint Secretariat of the World Bank and WHO, which is based in Washington.