COMMENT
HEALTHCARE IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD
W elcome to the OPEC Fund Quarterly. This edition focuses on healthcare, a topic that has dominated news headlines and public debate for almost two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The coronavirus has put health systems worldwide under unprecedented strain, with more than 5.45 million deaths to date. As the latest developments demonstrate, the pandemic will continue to test countries’ healthcare capacities to the limit into 2022. Against this backdrop, the OPEC Fund’s mission to help governments strengthen their healthcare systems is more urgent than ever. As we look at how best to aid the public and private sectors during and after the pandemic, we also recognize that the rigors of the last two years may have come at a cost. “If you have to put most of your resources into fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, then you may be forced to neglect the standard healthcare that people also need,” cautions Sharagim Shams, Senior Country Manager in our Public Sector Operations Department in an interview with the OPEC Fund Quarterly. The present challenge is how to ensure continued investment in sustainable
healthcare systems, while focusing on urgent COVID-19 related measures. The private sector can contribute by taking on some of the burden in healthcare. “The more there are good private hospitals, the less pressure there is on public sector infrastructure. Private healthcare also provides job opportunities in a skilled sector, retaining talents,” explains Ramina Samii, Director, Portfolio Management in Private Sector and Trade Finance Operations (see pp 12-17). The World Bank has been concentrating its energies on pandemic damage limitation – it has provided US$150 billion to developing countries so far. But it too is beginning to look to the future. Mamta Murthi, the World Bank’s Vice President for Human Development, sees challenges ahead: “If we look at how much countries have been spending on healthcare in the recent past and at how much they are able to spend projecting forward, we’re very concerned that most developing countries really do not have the resources to fight COVID-19 and to
Relentless focus on the coronavirus has obscured the toll other illnesses continue to inflict. Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a group of communicable conditions that affect 1.5 billion people worldwide – causing disability and disfigurement, and killing over 170,000 a year. “In 2020, NTDs caused far more illnesses, disability and mortality in Africa than COVID-19,” says Dr. Maria Rebollo Polo, Team Leader for the WHO’s Expanded Special Project for Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases (ESPEN) partnership (see pp 18-19), which includes the OPEC Fund. ESPEN is already having a tremendous impact, having protected 450 million of the 600 million Africans affected by NTDs up to 2020. But now is not the time to let up, says Rebollo: “It is critical that we do not allow the pandemic to reverse years of hard-fought progress. We are so close to the finish line and we need to keep the momentum going.” Private healthcare is invaluable in filling the gaps where the public sector cannot meet demand. This is especially true in emerging economies, whose weaknesses have been further exposed by the pandemic, says Massimiliano Colella, CEO of the healthcare equity platform Evercare (see pp 36-39): “The COVID-19
strengthen their health systems”. For more on what COVID-19 has
taught the World Bank about building responsive and resilient medical systems, see pp 8-11.
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