JAKARTA - The World Bank has pledged to increase funding for the purchase and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, from the original target of US$12 billion to around US$20 billion.
The increase in funds, which reached around Rp.291 trillion, was in line with the sharp increase in funding requests from developing countries.
World Bank President David Malpass said the global development bank has provided more than $4 billion to 51 developing countries for the purchase and deployment of a COVID-19 vaccine, and will soon add billions to another 25 countries.
"More will follow in the coming weeks," Malpass told reporters, noting that a total of 41 requests had been received from African countries, where less than half the population had been vaccinated.
In a joint statement, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Health Organization (WHO) urged G20 countries to embrace a target population that is vaccinated at least 40 percent by the end of 2021 and 60 percent by the first half of 2022.
They also urged the G20 major economies, whose financial leaders meet next week in Italy, to adopt the goal of sharing at least 1 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine with developing countries this year. To increase financing and remove trade barriers in the vaccine supply chain.
On the occasion, Malpass also repeated his call to countries with surplus doses, to release them and any options for more use by developing countries, with adequate distribution plans.
The World Bank also continues to press for greater transparency by governments and pharmaceutical companies about contracts, options and deals related to COVID-19 vaccines.
"We are at war with a vaccine. COVID-19 is not going away quickly. This is going to be a long-term war," Malpass said, adding that tight supply and high demand made it important to have enough information to keep production flowing.
The decision to increase vaccination funding reflects growing concerns about the vastly different vaccination rates between developed and developing economies, World Bank officials said.
The World Bank has seen a sharp increase in overall demand for financing from developing countries, not just health-related spending, during the pandemic, said the bank's managing director for operations, Axel van Trotsenburg.
He explained that the World Bank for International Reconstruction and Development together with the International Development Association had made loan commitments of nearly 100 billion US dollars since the beginning of the crisis, well above the normal level of below 60 billion US dollars. The high demand for financing is expected to continue into 2022, he said.
Van Trotsenburg said many middle-income countries in Latin America had requested bank financing, with a total of more than US$1 billion received in the last six weeks alone.
To note, the World Bank vaccine financing package can be used by countries to purchase vaccine doses through COVAX, the new African Vaccine Acquisition Task Force (AVATT) or other sources.
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