G20 targets raising $1.5 billion for global pandemic fund, says host
Indonesia
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[June 20, 2022]
By Stanley Widianto and Kate Lamb
JAKARTA (Reuters) -The Group of 20 (G20)
major economies aims to raise $1.5 billion this year for a fund set up
to better prepare for future pandemics, the health minister of current
G20 president Indonesia said on Friday.
G20 countries have provisionally agreed to set up a multi-billion dollar
fund that health officials have said will finance efforts like
surveillance, research, and better access to vaccination for
lower-to-middle income countries, among others.
Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said in an interview the
United States, European Union, Indonesia, Singapore and Germany have
pledged about $1.1 billion to the fund so far.
"If we can get by the end of this year $1.5 billion of fresh funding, we
will be very, very happy," he told Reuters, adding he hopes the group
can raise another $1.5 billion next year.
Indonesia will host the G20 leaders summit in Bali in November.
The World Bank, which will house the fund, and the World Health
Organization (WHO), which is advising on the facility, estimated in a
report
https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/
5760109c4db174ff90a8dfa7d025644a-0290032022/original/G20-Gaps-in-PPR-Financing-Mechanisms-WHO-and-WB-pdf.pdf
that the annual funding gap for pandemic preparedness is $10.5 billion.
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![](../images/062022PIX/health9.jpg)
Indonesia's Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin talks to a health
official during a tuberculosis screening on the sidelines of the G20
"Health Working Group" event in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, March 29,
2022. REUTERS/Stanley Widianto
Budi said he will start discussing contributions to the fund with
countries like Japan and Britain at a G20 health ministers meeting
in Indonesia next week.
"Pandemic is a war, and we have to be ready with
enough money when war happens," he said.
The United States and Indonesia have been pushing for the
establishment of the fund to help the world be better prepared to
tackle future pandemics, but the WHO has been concerned the fund
could undermine its own efforts and those of other global health
mechanisms.
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But Budi said the WHO will play "a leadership role" in identifying
which countries would need the fund or provide other
countermeasures.
The World Bank has said the fund is expected to be operational this
year, and Budi said the structure for the fund could be established
in a few months' time.
(Reporting by Stanley Widianto in Jakarta and Kate Lamb in Sydney;
Additional reporting by Zahra Matarani; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor)
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