250 million Covid vaccines for developing countries under World Bank contract-financing – David Malpass
President of the World Bank Group, David Malpass, has said the World Bank is currently ensuring the availability of over 250 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines for developing countries.
Making the disclosure at the World Bank/IMF 2021 Annual Meetings press briefing monitored by norvanreports on Wednesday, October 13, Mr Malpass noted that the World Bank has entered into contracts with manufacturers and advanced countries to make available the 250 million covid vaccines for developing countries.
“250 million covid vaccines are currently under World Bank contract-financing with advanced countries and manufacturers for developing countries,” he stated.
The World Bank in response to the COVID-19 severely damaging the lives and livelihoods of millions of people in developing countries, has deployed over $157 billion to fight the pandemic’s health, economic, and social impacts over the last 15 months (April 1, 2020 – June 30, 2021).
It is the largest crisis response of any such period in the Bank Group’s history and represents an increase of more than 60% over the 15-month period prior to the pandemic. Bank Group commitments and mobilizations in fiscal year 2021 alone amounted to almost $110 billion.
Since the start of the pandemic, the Bank has supported countries to address the health emergency, strengthen health systems, protect the poor and vulnerable, support businesses, create jobs and jump-start a green, resilient, and inclusive recovery.
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Following last year’s COVID-related economic deterioration, the global economy is expected to expand 5.6% in 2021. Thus far, the recovery is uneven and many of the world’s poorest countries are being left behind.
While about 90% of advanced economies are expected to regain their pre-pandemic per capita income levels by 2022, only about one-third of emerging market and developing economies are projected to do the same.
Mr Malpass has said the Bank will continue to provide critical assistance to developing countries through the ongoing pandemic to help achieve a more broad-based economic recovery.
“The Bank Group has proven to be a rapid, innovative, and effective platform to support developing countries as they respond to the pandemic and strengthen resilience for future shocks. But we must do more still. I remain deeply concerned about the limited availability of vaccines for developing countries, which are critical to saving lives and livelihoods,” he said.
