News & Analysis: Multilaterals
“Change can be daunting, but it is far less scary than the alternative. Radical changes in government policy, in business behaviour and in our personal choices over the past 18 months demonstrate that previously unthinkable actions can be undertaken.”
“Our collective failure to end the pandemic now will create and compound even deeper and more costly problems in the future. The immediate knock-on effects, including for the West, will be severe. But this historic failure of multilateralism is also undermining the trust and incentives necessary for effective international cooperation on the other existential challenges of the day – most notably, climate change.”
“The pandemic revealed significant gaps in early warning capabilities to detect and respond to emerging pathogens before they cause global harm. Given the current situation, how can we leverage existing systems and emerging technologies to better characterize the various risk factors that could signal the next pandemic?”
“Better disclosure of the terms of the contracts themselves would certainly be better practice going forward, and in times of stress, it can facilitate quicker and easier engagement with the key multilateral actors.”
“To end this pandemic, high-income countries with a vaccine pipeline for adequate coverage of their populations should, alongside their own scale-ups, immediately commit to providing the 92 low- and middle-income countries of Gavi’s COVAX Advance Market Commitment with at least 1 billion vaccine doses by no later than September 2021, reaching more than 2 billion doses by mid-2022.”
“The global community needs to empower WHO with the clear authority to investigate outbreaks of concern rapidly and there must be clear criteria for the agency on when to declare a public health emergency of international concern.”
“The best global response to a potential pandemic is to prevent an outbreak in the first place. That involves better sanitation and protection in factory farms, live animal markets, hospitals and laboratories.”
“A partnership signed today between IFC and Djibouti-based East Africa Bank (EAB) will help EAB better mitigate financial risks which have been amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic and improve its sustainability.”
“Many DFIs focused on supporting their existing clients through the crisis rather than finding new clients. Investing has been more challenging, but concerns that their balance sheets would take a hit didn’t materialize, nor did the type of demand they expected for liquidity support.”
“ITFC (a subsidiary of the Islamic Development Bank -IsDB) will provide $250 million (about XAF138 billion) to Cameroon every year for the acquisition of medical equipment and consumables as well as the importation of commodities in strategic sectors like mining and energy.”
A hub for information, analysis, and the global response to COVID-19’s impact on Africa