SPECIAL FEATURE
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The pandemic has clearly shown that there is a need for much more investment in healthcare, including preventive systems such as surveillance and monitoring, in addition to the capacity to treat people when a disease becomes an epidemic or a pandemic. This requires financing, institutional strength, development and cooperation across borders.
Mamta Murthi, World Bank Vice President, Human Development
OFQ : Can you give us concrete examples of the World Bank’s impact with its pandemic response? MM: The global COVID-19 pandemic vaccination campaign is the largest in history, presenting challenges unprecedented in scale, speed, and specificities, especially in low- and middle-income countries. In November 2020, together with the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, the Global Fund and the Vaccine Alliance (GAVI), we rolled out readiness assessments in over 140 countries. Based on our findings, we provided project financing for the purchase of vaccines and filling supply gaps. We are making US$20 billion available to help countries purchase and deploy vaccines. This builds on a US$8 billion global health platform, which has helped in the initial emergency response.
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