• The fund is designed to provide a dedicated stream of additional, long-term financing to strengthen pandemic preparedness and response capabilities.
• This comes after a leading scientist warned there is enough evidence the next pandemic is coming, but Kenya is woefully unprepared
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Kenya is among countries set to benefit from a new fund that seeks to enhance preparedness and response to any future pandemics.
The new Financial Intermediary Fund will be hosted by the World Bank with technical leadership from the World Health Organization.
The fund is designed to provide a dedicated stream of additional, long-term financing to strengthen pandemic preparedness and response capabilities in low- and middle-income countries including Kenya.
It also seeks to address critical gaps through investments and technical support at the national level and provide complementary support and improve coordination among partners.
The fund will also serve as a platform for advocacy and help focus and sustain much-needed, high-level attention on strengthening health systems.
The first call for proposals for investments to be funded by the FIF will open in November 2022, with more than 15 countries having made their financial commitments.
They include Australia, Canada, China, the European Commission, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, the UK, the US, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.
Key areas of focus will be in zoonotic disease surveillance, laboratories, emergency communication, coordination and management, enhancing critical health workforce capacities and community engagement.
“Covid-19 has highlighted the pressing need for action to build stronger health systems. Investing now will save lives and resources for the years to come,” World Bank Group president David Malpass said.
The World Bank will serve as the FIF’s trustee and host the secretariat, which will include technical staff seconded from WHO.
The governing board will appoint a technical advisory panel, chaired by WHO and comprising leading experts to assess and make recommendations to the technical merits of proposals for funding.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has been a seismic shock to the world, but we also know that the next pandemic is a matter of when, not if,” WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
"The suffering and loss we have all endured will be in vain unless we learn the painful lessons from Covid-19 and put in place the measures to fill critical gaps in the world’s defences against epidemics and pandemics,” he added.
The World Bank and WHO will intensify their work with the governing board in consultation with Civil Society Organisations and other stakeholders.
They will help set up the fund and develop the FIF results framework and priorities in the run up to the first call for proposals.
This comes after a leading scientist warned there is enough evidence the next pandemic is coming, but Kenya and other African countries are woefully unprepared.
Microbiologist Prof Walter Jaoko said the continent must learn the painful lessons from Covid-19, which has so far killed at least 5,600 Kenyans.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)