COVID-19: Dangote pledges N200m to contain spread in Nigeria
As confirmed cases of coronavirus increase globally, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has expanded funding for it own global response with an additional $150 million.
The additional funding brings the foundation’s commitment to the fight against COVID-19 to more than $250 million (N87.5 billion).
A statement released by the foundation on Thursday said the new funding will also provide partners in Africa and South Asia with resources to scale up their COVID-19 detection, treatment, and isolation efforts.
The new fund is to help strengthen African and South Asian health systems, support development of diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines and help mitigate the social and economic impacts of the virus.
The foundation said it will also leverage a portion of its $2.5 billion Strategic Investment Fund, which uses a suite of financial tools to address market failures and incentivise private enterprise to develop affordable and accessible health products.
“These funds, which can include equity investments, loans, and volume guarantees, will be used to help health systems in low- and middle-income countries facilitate the rapid procurement of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers, COVID-19 diagnostics, oxygen therapeutics, and other essential medical supplies,” it said.
The funding is coming hours after the U.S., President, Donald Trump, suspended funding for the World Health Organisation claiming that the agency “failed in its basic duty” by hiding vital information that allowed the pandemic to spread across the world.
The U.S., is the largest funder of the public health agency.
Mr Gates had criticised the move by Mr Trump saying pulling funds from the UN health agency is dangerous especially at a time when the world is facing the health crisis brought by COVID-19.
In announcing the funding, the foundation called on world leaders to unite in a global response to COVID-19 to ensure equitable access to diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines.
Gates Foundation’s co-chair, Melinda Gates, said “it is increasingly clear that the world’s response to this pandemic will not be effective unless it is also equitable”.
“We have a responsibility to meet this global crisis with global solidarity. In addition to contributing to the development of diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines, these funds will support efforts against COVID-19 in low-and-middle-income countries, where local leaders and healthcare workers are doing heroic work to protect vulnerable communities and slow the spread of the disease,” she said.
The foundation’s initial funding had helped kick-start the search for COVID-19 diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines; enhanced virus detection capacity in Africa; and contributed to the response in China.
Mr Gates said “COVID-19 doesn’t obey border laws. Even if most countries succeed in slowing the disease over the next few months, the virus could return if the pandemic remains severe enough elsewhere.
“The world community must understand that so long as COVID-19 is somewhere, we need to act as if it were everywhere. Beating this pandemic will require an unprecedented level of international funding and cooperation.”
Priority areas
In announcing its new $150 million commitment, the foundation identified some priority areas for investment: accelerating virus detection in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia with funding to scale their COVID-19 detection, treatment, and isolation efforts.
The funding will also be used in protecting the most vulnerable, provide medium and long-term policy responses to the minimising social and economic Impact and develop products for a sustained response
Meanwhile, the foundation CEO, Mark Suzman, said “Philanthropy cannot—and should not—supplant the public and private sectors. What philanthropy is good at is testing out ideas that might not otherwise get tried, so governments and businesses can then take on the successful ones. With all sectors working together, we can avoid the worst-case scenarios of human, economic, and social costs.”
“This pandemic has unleashed an extraordinary philanthropic response. While significant, it is still only one small part of what must be a coordinated effort to beat this global crisis,” he added
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