By Hanna Park
(WASHINGTON) The International Monetary Fund called for a $50 billion spending plan to boost vaccine accessibility and distribution across several countries, Bloomberg reported Friday.
The investment is part of a larger effort to immunize at least 40% of the global population by the end of this year and 60% or more by the first half of 2022, the IMF said on Friday.
Here is a breakdown of the initiative’s goals and funding:
- $35 billion: Allocated to the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, a campaign largely led by the World Health Organization.
- $15 billion: Funded by national governments, potentially supported by facilities created by multilateral development banks.
- $19 billion: Rich nations must help close a funding gap amounting to this number and share excess doses.
- $9 trillion: To generate an economic boost by 2025.
“Economic recoveries are diverging dangerously,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said. stressing that these targets largely depend on cooperation between countries that have prioritized their own interests.
“The disparities will widen further between wealthy countries that have widespread access to vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics, and poorer countries still struggling to inoculate front-line healthcare workers,” Kristalina Georgieva added.
The effort puts pressure on rich countries to increase funding and share doses as the virus continues to ravage other struggling countries such as India. Almost half of the U.S. population and 55% of the U.K.’s have received at least one dose. But less than 2% of Africa’s population had been vaccinated as of April.
Some countries have obtained more vaccines than they need, and health advocates say more should be shared with the rest of the world. It remains unclear how much wealthy governments will support the effort in the coming days.
COVAX, the global vaccine initiative, has shipped only 68 million of the 2 billion doses it hopes to send out by the end of the year. The IMF is encouraging countries to provide additional upfront grants to COVAX and donations of surplus doses.