At their meeting in Bali on July 15-16, G20 finance ministers reaffirmed their commitment to coordinated action to get the Covid-19 pandemic under control and better prepare for the next global health emergency.
A central topic was the creation of a new financial intermediary fund (FIF) to address pandemic preparedness and response (PPR), under the trusteeship of the World Bank and with the World Health Organization playing a central technical and coordinating role. The goal is to close some of the annual PPR financing gap of US$10.5 billion (384.7 billion baht) and help strengthen capacities that are critical to protecting global health, including drug manufacturing.
Over the next month, the G20, World Bank, and the WHO will finalise the FIF design. The Indonesian G20 Presidency has enabled some preliminary agreements that move in the right direction. For example, there is an emerging consensus that the FIF's governance must include low- and middle-income countries, non-G20 partners, and civil society. This is a positive departure from the World Bank's May 2022 White Paper which proposed a deeply retrograde, insular design whereby (mainly rich country) donors would make all the decisions and consult others (or not) as they chose.
