THE OPEC FUND FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Annual Report 2020
The OPEC Fund and COVID-19
In a clear demonstration of support for Sustainable Development Goal 17, which calls for partnerships for the global goals, the OPEC Fund also committed to joint multilateral efforts to help developing countries mitigate, contain and recover from COVID-19. These were targeted to both public and private sectors and will help mobilize billions of dollars of funding to support governments and private enterprise in delivering critical healthcare supplies, ensure MSMEs can access capital, and strengthen global supply chains to sustain millions of workers in developing countries. The OPEC Fund will continue to drive the pooling of public and private financial resources in response to COVID-19. The organization will also remain engaged in knowledge sharing, including providing technical assis- tance, to help build back better in the years ahead.
During 2020, the OPEC Fund responded quickly to COVID-19. Our fast-tracked financing is helping to miti- gate the effects of the pandemic by ensuring assistance is readily available to partner countries most in need. The OPEC Fund approved more than 20 COVID-19-related operations during the year, for over $500m. The finance will assist 15 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America (see the table on the next page for more details) in ad- dressing the following needs:
• immediate and critical healthcare supplies;
• the resilience and rapid scale-up of healthcare systems (such as increasing the number of hospital beds and trained healthcare professionals); and • the longer-term economic and social impacts of the pandemic, by strengthening essential infrastructure and social safety nets, and supporting local financial institutions and MSMEs.
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