21st Jun 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant impact on lives and livelihoods worldwide. We have to play our part to overcome the current pandemic and better prepare for the next one. This will help avoid a repeat of the catastrophic economic, social and human costs of COVID-19.
2. In line with the recommendations by the G20 High Level Independent Panel1, the G20 Joint Finance and Health Ministers Meeting has endorsed a proposal to establish a financial intermediary fund (FIF)2 for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (PPR), hosted by the World Bank. The FIF aims to fill critical financing PPR gaps and promote a more coordinated approach to PPR investments. It will value-add to existing work to catalyse domestic investments in low- and lower-middle-income countries, as well as build pandemic PPR capacities at the regional and global levels. The European Commission, Germany, Indonesia, and the United States have pledged contributions to the FIF.
3. Singapore supports multilateral initiatives to strengthen our global health security. We have contributed to the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) Advance Market Commitment (AMC) mechanism3, as well as to the World Health Organization and other international health agencies for responses to COVID-19. In addition, Singapore will contribute US$10,000,000 to the FIF to support this multilateral endeavour.
4. Singapore will continue to work closely with the Indonesia G20 Presidency and our international partners to strengthen our collective resilience against future pandemics.
MINISTRY OF FINANCE AND MINISTRY OF HEALTH
21 JUNE 2022
[1] The G20 High Level Independent Panel on Financing the Global Commons for Pandemic Preparedness and Response was established by the Italian G20 Presidency in 2021. It was co-chaired by Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Lawrence Summers. Refer to Annex A.
[2] A Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF) is a trust fund administered by World Bank to leverage public and private resources to provide global public goods like preventing communicable diseases, responding to climate change and providing food security. The World Bank provides tailored operational, legal and financial services to manage the Fund. Other examples of FIFs hosted by the World Bank include the Green Climate Fund; the Global Environment Facility; and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. See more information on FIFs at the World Bank here.
[3] COVAX AMC supports 92 low- and lower-middle income countries’ access to donor-funded COVID-19 vaccines.