A new trust fund for pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response has been established by the World Bank Group (PPR).
The United States-backed assistance, according to President David Malpass, would evaluate and improve health readiness throughout the developing globe.
Prior to the 2022 WBG-IMF Annual Meetings, the economic expert gave a speech on Thursday at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR).
Malpass noted that the global economy faces a difficult reality and claimed that unheard-of macroeconomic policies and a string of harsh events are plunging development into disaster.
The chief assured of World Bank’s commitment to alleviate poverty and boost shared prosperity, announcing that support for developing countries, especially for climate-related finance, reached $31.7billion in 2022.
He hinted that the Group’s upcoming Poverty and Shared Prosperity report suggests that the deterioration in development progress began well ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Malpass pointed out that the recent shocks had left emerging nations with a very difficult outlook in the near future.
Among the contributing causes include rising energy, food, and fertiliser prices, widening credit spreads, depreciating currencies, and capital outflows.
According to Malpass, it could take years for the world’s energy production to diversify away from Russia, which would prolong the stagflation that the World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects report noted.
“Many developing countries are also struggling in governance and rule of law; debt sustainability; climate adaptation and mitigation; and limited fiscal budgets to counteract the severe reversals in development from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The pandemic – which alone led to over six million deaths – geopolitical conflicts, and extreme weather events have hurt countries and people worldwide, with the poor bearing the brunt, especially women and girls.”
“Developing countries are being hit by more severe climate-related disasters. Man-made greenhouse gas emissions are causing climate change, which in turn is having tragic impacts on development.”
“Adaptation by countries and people harmed by climate change and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions are urgently needed,” the President added.
Malpass emphasised that the urgency of inflation, climate change, famine, civil unrest, and violence is evident in daily news stories and that the World Bank is actively involved in the issues and willing to work on solutions.
