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The demand is a sign that pandemic prevention, preparedness and
response needs more money and attention, the head of the fund's
secretariat at the World Bank, Priya Basu, told Reuters.
The fund is one of a host of global initiatives being set up to help
prevent a COVID-19 rerun, alongside a binding agreement being
drafted by World Health Organization (WHO) member states and plans
to speed up vaccine manufacturing.
However, almost all of the efforts remain under-funded.
The World Bank's pandemic fund has raised around $1.6 billion in
total so far, much less than the $10 billion annual funding gap for
pandemic preparedness, as estimated by the WHO and the bank.
The fund has $300 million available for its first round of
financing, and in February received 650 early expressions of
interest from countries, regional bodies and global health
organisations for the money.
Parties now have until May 19 to draft formal proposals for the
first phase, which prioritises surveillance, laboratory systems and
the health workforce.
"It's clear that countries and regional entities are eager to invest
more to strengthen pandemic prevention and preparedness and that
much more financing will be needed for this agenda," said Basu.
The bank has said that the aim is for its first round to be a "proof
of concept" and it hopes other sources of funding, for example from
other global health bodies, can also be made available.
(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
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