Pandemic Preparedness and response

ABSTRACT The World Bank’s Fiduciary Intermediary Fund for Pandemic Preparedness and Response reminds readers that it is soon to launch its first Call for Proposals.

ABSTRACT The Fiduciary Intermediary Fund for Pandemic Preparedness and Response had its first Board meeting on 8 and 9 September. As we conclude the Global Fund Replenishment Conference in New York, we ask if its creation has resulted in less overseas development assistance for the Global Fund.

ABSTRACT Although monkeypox has been around for decades, it is only recently that it has received global attention. This is because its epidemiology is changing as it moves from countries where it is endemic to previously non-endemic countries, including the United States and countries in Europe. It is also changing from animal to human transmission to human-to-human transmission and, worryingly, appears to be more prevalent among men who have sex with men.

ABSTRACT Jorge Saavedra, a member of the Developing Country NGO Constituency on the Global Fund Board, explains the World Bank’s creation of a separate fund to address pandemic preparedness and response and discusses what this may mean for the Global Fund and its partners. In this new financing mechanism, communities and civil society, at the heart of the Global Fund’s response to the three diseases, do not have an equal place at the table. Not only could it duplicate some of the Global Fund’s work, but it could potentially divert financial support from the Global Fund.

ABSTRACT The Global Fund has called for an African commission to investigate the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa. We urge the African Union or a similar body to establish the ‘Commission on the Origins and Spread of COVID-19 in Africa’ to examine the continent’s preparedness to detect the outbreak and virus variants. The Commission can also help explain why Africa has, so far, reported a modest number of COVID-19 cases compared to its counterparts, and why some countries in the region were more affected than others. The findings of the Commission of Inquiry can then be used to inform preparedness for future pandemics and other public health emergencies.

ABSTRACT The topic of pandemic preparedness and response has been a controversial issue during the 18 months leading up to the development of the Strategy Framework and now the draft Narrative. This article provides you a view for and a view against. What is clear is that it is not as simple as Pros and Cons, and the opposing views are not actually that contradictory.

RÉSUMÉ Six anciens membres du Conseil d’administration du Fonds mondial, dont une ancienne présidente et vice-présidente, font valoir que le Fonds mondial est le seul mécanisme financier international capable de faire face aux pandémies et doit continuer à lutter, non seulement contre le sida, la tuberculose et le paludisme ou la COVID-19, mais également contre toute future pandémie. Leur lettre ouverte au Conseil d’administration est arrivée trop tard pour être examinée à la réunion extraordinaire du Conseil qui s’est tenue le 22 juillet, au cours de laquelle le cadre stratégique a enfin été approuvé, mais ils ont encore le temps d’influencer le projet de texte

ABSTRACT Six former Global Fund Board members, including one past Board Chair and Vice-Chair, argue that the Global Fund is the only international financial mechanism able to address pandemics and must continue to fight not just AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria or COVID-19 but any future pandemics. Their open letter to the Board was too late to be considered at the Extraordinary Board Meeting of 22 July, at which the Strategy Framework was finally endorsed: but they still have time to influence the draft Narrative.