(April 15 – 21, 2020)
With nearly 500,000 new cases since DevelopmentAid’s last weekly review, the total number of COVID-19 patients has now reached the 2.5 million mark in 213 countries and territories. Since late 2019, when the first cases of the disease were registered in Wuhan, China, over 170,000 people have died because of the virus. At the same time, 688,000 people have recovered. The United States of America has suffered the worst so far, with over 800,000 Americans infected, nearly 45,000 dead and almost 75,000 having recovered. Over 4 million COVID-19 tests have been done in the US to detect those infected.
However, the country has recently been making international headlines not only because of its grim COVID-19 statistics. Last week, Donald Trump decided to halt the country’s financing of the World Health Organization (WHO). The suspension in funding is expected to last 60 to 90 days until a review has been conducted “to assess the WHO role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus”. While making this statement, Trump made reference to what he called a “disastrous decision of the WHO to oppose the travel restrictions from China and other nations”.
In his response, the WHO Director General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, an Ethiopian microbiologist, stated that he regretted the news and commented that US funding is not used to fight COVID-19 alone, saying “With support from the people and the US government, WHO works to improve the health of many of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people”.
“WHO is not only fighting COVID-19. We are also working to address polio, measles, malaria, Ebola, HIV, tuberculosis, malnutrition, cancer, diabetes, mental health and many other diseases. […] WHO is reviewing the impact on our work caused by any withdrawal of US funding and we will work with our partners to fill any financial gaps we face to ensure our work continues uninterrupted” concluded the WHO Director General.
In 2018-19, the US provided almost 15% of the WHO budget – amounting to nearly US$400 million.
Europe’s response to COVID-19
Across the Atlantic, Her Majesty’s government has made public a plan to fight the second possible wave of COVID-19. Thus a package of £200 million will support UK charities and international organizations to help to reduce mass infections in developing countries. Health experts have identified the weakness of developing countries’ healthcare systems as one of the most serious risks of the global spread of the virus, according to the DFID press-release.
The new UK aid package includes £130 million in funding for UN agencies. Of this amount, £65 million will be directed to the WHO and a further £50 million will be assigned to support the Red Cross in difficult to reach areas such as those suffering from armed conflict. “A final £20 million will go to NGOs, including UK charities, which are using British expertise and experience to deal with the coronavirus” concludes the press statement.
The UN estimates that approximately 168 million people in the world will need emergency relief in 2020. Finland’s Minister for Development, Cooperation and Foreign Trade believes that countries will be unable to solve the crisis without international cooperation. So far, Finland has granted EUR 72.5 million in humanitarian assistance with aid focusing on Africa and the Middle East and, in addition, the country is also supporting Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Ukraine. Approximately half of the package consists of core funding to the central UN agencies, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Double-trouble in Africa
Africa is the subject of growing concern for international organizations. The International Monetary Fund has published six charts to illustrate how COVID-19 threatens development in Sub-Saharan Africa. The IMF expects GDP on the continent to contract by 1.6% in 2020. Furthermore, the crisis threatens to slow down the region’s growth prospects for the year ahead. The IMF insists on stepping up health spending, irrespective of fiscal space and debt levels. “Given the large but temporary nature of the shock, some discretionary fiscal support is warranted, even in countries with limited space. The focus should be on targeted measures that alleviate liquidity constraints on vulnerable firms and households” concluded the article released by the IMF.
Another point of concern in Africa is the lack of electricity which is so desperately needed for medical facilities and water pumping stations. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the African Union agreed last week to cooperate in advancing access to renewable energy across the continent. This is intended to bolster Africa’s response to COVID-19.
The Middle East responds to COVID-19 challenges
In the Middle East, the Saudi G20 Presidency called for US$8 billion to combat COVID-19. Saudi Arabia, as the holder of the G20 presidency, has pledged US$500 million to international organizations to support global efforts to combat the pandemic. The pledge will help to finance emergency and preparedness responses and the development and deployment of new diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines as well as the PPE necessary for health workers.
The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) member countries will benefit from a “Strategic Preparedness and Response Facility” of US$730 million. The financing will be available in the form of grants, concessional resources, trade finance, private sector lending and political and risk insurance coverage. The IsDB will also invest in the research and development of innovative solutions for preventing and containing the pandemic.
The Eastern front of the war with COVID-19
In the East, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has announced the doubling of funds under its COVID-19 Crisis Recovery Facility. Thus the bank will provide not 5 but US$10 billion to help private and public sector clients through the pandemic. The decision comes as a result of “high client demand”. According to the bank, the key three areas where immediate assistance is required are (1) health infrastructure and preparedness, (2) liquidity support through on-lending facilities and credit lines via financial institutions and (3) immediate fiscal and budgetary support, in partnership with other multilateral development banks.
International Procurement
The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered certain patterns in tenders and grants related to the health sector. According to DevelopmentAid insider intelligence, the number of health related tenders and grants increased in Q1 2020 compared to the previous similar period.
[Read Tenders and grants related to the health sector on the rise in Q1 2020]
DevelopmentAid provides a weekly review of the coronavirus situation across the world. You can read the previous editions by accessing this link. Stay tuned for our next weekly journal to be published on April 29th.
About COVID-2019 Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that are common in many different species of animals including camels, cattle, cats and bats. Rarely, animal coronaviruses can infect people and then spread between them such as was the case with MERS (2012) and SARS (2003).The symptoms of the virus are very similar to those of a common cold – runny nose, headache, cough, sore throat, fever, a general feeling of being unwell. Blood tests are necessary in order to prove the presence of the virus in the organism. Named by scientists as the “Wuhan seafood market pneumonia virus”, COVID-19 is a coronavirus, like MERS and SARs, all of which have their origins in bats. Initial reports show that, in the early stages of the outbreak (early January 2020), many of those infected in Wuhan had some link to a large seafood and live animal market – the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, mainly its western wing where wildlife animals are traded. This suggests that the virus initially affected an animal and subsequently spread to a person in a what a CDC has called “the species barrier jump”.
