“Much of the delay in COVID-19 vaccine deliveries to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) resulted from their signing purchase agreements later than high-income countries (HICs). These lags in part reflect the restrictive lending criteria the multilateral development banks (MDBs) adopted for vaccine financing, which precluded countries from using MDB funds to purchase vaccines before they were approved by national regulators or by the World Health Organization (WHO) for emergency use.”
In our latest collaboration with the Center for Global Development (CGD) Rachel Glennerster, Siddhartha Haria, Leah R. Rosenzweig and Lawrence H. Summers discuss how multilateral development banks can enable at-risk financing to reduce barriers to medical countermeasures (e.g. vaccines), for LMICs in future pandemics.
To further explore the topic, MSA and CGD convened leading experts for a panel discussion “Day Zero Dollars: Unlocking Immediate Funds for Global Pandemic Response.” The discussion brought together diverse perspectives form key global health organizations:
- Augustin Flory, Managing Director, Innovative Partnerships and Development Finance, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance
- Nafisa Jiwani,Managing Director, Health Initiatives, U.S. International Development Finance Corporation
- Serina Ng, Executive Head, G20 Joint Finance-Health Task Force Secretariat, World Health Organization
- Leah Rosenzweig, Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development and Director, University of Chicago’s Market Shaping Accelerator
- Juan Pablo Uribe, Global Director, Health, Nutrition and Population, and Director, the Global Financing Facility, World Bank Group
- Javier Guzman, Senior Policy Fellow and Director of Global Health, Center for Global Development (moderator)
Watch the full panel discussions
Learn more in Development Today’s analysis of World Bank discussions, which draws heavily on MSA’s research and proposals on this topic.
