Global finance

Global Fund chief warns innovative finance ‘a proxy’ for actual giving

dlegge — Sun, 21 Jan 2024 00:46:05 +0000

Global Fund chief warns innovative finance ‘a proxy’ for actual giving

21 June 2023

dlegge Sun, 21/01/2024 - 11:46

Devex

On the eve of a major summit in Paris, Peter Sands says grants, not loans, rema…

The head of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has warned that innovative financial instruments and private sector mobilization are only of limited use when it comes to helping the world’s poorest people.

Speaking to Devex ahead of a summit in Paris this week, designed to strike a new pact between wealthy and low-income countries, Peter Sands said that getting multilateral development banks to stimulate private investment in low-income, conflict-affected countries “is not going to really work … because you are not going to get rational private capital investing significant sums in those parts of the world.”

A draft declaration for the Paris summit, drawn up by the French organizers and seen by Devex, reiterates the need for “new, innovative and stable sources of finance,” especially to tackle poverty and climate change. However, it is light on new financial commitments, and as Devex has reported, shareholders are themselves split over whether to inject new capital into, for instance, MDBs.

Sands told Devex Tuesday that the Global Fund, which largely operates through grants sustained by replenishment conferences every three years, is keen to expand its work with MDBs. He cited the potential for more collaboration on procurement and providing technical assistance alongside lenders like the World Bank.

However, Sands also cautioned that donors should also be “very realistic” about the limits of working through a system of loans rather than grants.

“If you are dealing with the plight of the very poorest — displaced people in war zones, children in the most poverty-stricken rural parts of Africa — there is no real private sector incentive [to invest],” he said. “That has to be an altruistic, greater good of humanity motivation that drives that kind of impact.

Keywords

PandemicPreparednessFinancing

Global finance

Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria

G2H2 Report on Financial Justice for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response (November 2022)

dlegge — Sun, 21 Jan 2024 00:29:23 +0000

G2H2 Report on Financial Justice for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response (November 2022)

01 November 2022

dlegge Sun, 21/01/2024 - 11:29

G2H2

finance for PPPR

A year ago, the second Special Session of the World Health Assembly (WHASS) unanimously agreed to start a diplomatic process for a new binding instrument aimed at ensuring the international community is better prepared for the next health emergencies. The establishment of an Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) at the WHO paved the terrain for a proper negotiation, which has started to unfold. The INB will be releasing the “conceptual zero draft” of the treaty text in early December 2022.

Whatever the outcome of the process, one of the inescapable pillars of any new international agreement is addressing how to finance pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (PPR). This is the reason why the Geneva Global Health Hub (G2H2) decided to embark into the contentious relationship between the international financial architecture and current health financing models, towards highlighting the pitfalls the world must avoid to ensure a healthier post-COVID world.

There is no shortage of money in this world, but redirecting that money requires bold action. Most financial decisions rest with the G20 and fiscal policies with the OECD – entities with no jurisdiction that embody high-income countries’ interests. Therefore, we need delegates to get out of their silos and be prepared to confront the status quo, including actors and institutions that maintain the current system of global financial injustice. There are no easy solutions, but new ideas and initiatives at the UN are paving the way for addressing pathological relations of power at the root of health inequities.

Keywords

Global finance

PandemicTreaty

The Pandemic Fund: A blueprint for success

dlegge — Sun, 21 Jan 2024 00:27:08 +0000

The Pandemic Fund: A blueprint for success dlegge Sun, 21/01/2024 - 11:27

save

Pandemic fund

Over the past three years, children have suffered immensely from the health and socioeconomic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic which threatened their rights to survive, thrive, learn and be protected. Many health systems were unable to respond adequately to the increased demand for health care due to the pandemic, nor could they maintain routine health services.

With limited health financing, it is critical that we maximise the impact of the investments in the Pandemic Fund. The new fund must focus on the areas which both; strengthen primary health care to boost resilience for health shocks and build core preparedness capacities.

By doing so we will make gains in child survival and improve health outcomes for all women, children and adolescents. It is therefore essential that interventions must be equitable, inclusive, integrated and that all stakeholders play an equal part in their design.

Keywords

Global finance

Pandemic fund

The Pandemic Accord Needs Clear Commitments on Adequate & Fair Financing for Prevention Preparedness and Response

dlegge — Sat, 20 Jan 2024 23:04:42 +0000

The Pandemic Accord Needs Clear Commitments on Adequate & Fair Financing for Prevention Preparedness and Response

08 November 2023

dlegge Sun, 21/01/2024 - 10:04

GHF

Pandemic financing

Global health governance confronts two long-term problems. One of them is a growing fragmentation and misalignment of agendas and initiatives. The other is a problem of power, encompassing accountability, transparency, and meaningful voice. Inevitably the two problems are linked, and nowhere more so than when it comes to the financing of global health agendas. Each of these problems have intensified since the pandemic, as identified by numerous commissions and initiatives including the International Panel on Pandemic Preparedness and Response and the more recent Future of Global Health Initiatives process.

But where do the various recommendations that have emerged from these processes take us? The answer may be nowhere if the formal governmental and multilateral processes seeking a common approach to pandemic preparedness and response continue to underestimate the significance of an adequately and equitably financed post-COVID regime. This would be a victory for entrenched inequalities. But the challenge concerns not just the volume of the financing needed for effective PPR. It also concerns the quality of that financing and how it is governed.

Keywords

Global finance

PandemicTreaty

Reforms to the global financial architecture

dlegge — Sat, 20 Jan 2024 22:02:19 +0000

Reforms to the global financial architecture

12 December 2023

dlegge Sun, 21/01/2024 - 09:02

GPF

Proposals, conflicts and prospects on the way to the Summit of the Future 2024 …

Calls for reforms of the international financial architecture are becoming ever louder. Governments, UN institutions, expert groups and civil society organizations are criticizing the fact that the network of institutions and rules that currently determine global monetary and financial policy and control global financial flows are not up to the current crises. The international financial architecture is “outdated, dysfunctional and unfair”, according to UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

In view of these challenges, the UN Member States made the reform of the international financial architecture a priority topic of the UN Summit of the Future (SotF). It is due to take place at the level of Heads of State and Government in New York on 22 and 23 September 2024. The outcome will be a Pact for the Future. Its content will be negotiated in New York in the months leading up to the Summit. The following six topics are expected to be discussed in the negotiations on the global financial architecture:

i. Reforms of the international financial institutions

ii. Short-term liquidity and financial safety nets

iii. Long-term financing of sustainable development

iv. Prevention and management of debt crises

v. Reforms of the global tax architecture

vi. Regulation of the global financial markets.

In view of the intensified geopolitical confrontations, the outcome of the Summit is more than uncertain. Despite the difficult context, however, it does offer some chance of reviving multilateral cooperation and initiating some long overdue reforms in the international system. In addition, the Summit of the Future can be a milestone on the way to the fourth Financing for Development Conference in Spain in 2025.

This Briefing Paper provides information on some of the key issues being discussed in the preparatory process for the Summit in the area of global financial architecture reforms, outlines political lines of conflict and describes civil society expectations.

Keywords

SocEcoDev

SDGs (Sustainable development goals)

Global finance

Debt