Funding pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response through partnership models

The World Bank has established the Pandemic Fund, a financial intermediary fund for pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response to strengthen the capability of low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) to address crucial health system gaps through investments and technical support.

Effective integration of the Pandemic Fund within the existing global health architecture requires that duplication of efforts be avoided, and that the function of the Fund be harmonised with that of other major funds, chiefly the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. We propose that the Global Fund, the world’s leading financing mechanism for LMICs to fight three of the most challenging infectious diseases of our time—namely, HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria

—occupy a central position in channelling the World Bank’s Pandemic Fund resources to LMICs.

Because of the Global Fund’s collaborative approach to financing, it is uniquely situated among multilateral international entities to harness the power of the public, private, and civil society sectors, and does this by mobilising and deploying funds to national programmes with a high degree of accountability and impact. More than 50 million lives have been saved by programmes supported by the Global Fund.

The Pandemic Fund’s collaborative approach is based on a partnership model where stakeholders are represented throughout its decision-making processes. This model involves having a board with executive functions and a governance structure where donors and implementers have an equal number of seats and voting rights, as well as civil society and private sector donor seats. The model also entails engaging at the local level through its Country Coordinating Mechanisms, national committees that process funding applications and oversee grants for individual countries. These committees include representatives from all sectors involved in the response to diseases (eg, academic institutions, civil society, faith-based organisations, multilateral and bilateral agencies, non-governmental organisations, technical agencies, the private sector, and people affected by HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria).

The Global Fund has a proven record and capacity to operate beyond its original mandate. The Fund already uses many of the key strategies to help countries prevent, prepare for, and respond to the next pandemic, such as funding service delivery and health system strengthening and reducing human rights barriers to access services for key populations.

The Global Fund has raised more than US$3·8 billion for its COVID-19 response mechanism, which were distributed to 109 countries and 22 multicountry programmes.