World Bank Approves $12B for Coronavirus Vaccine Distribution in Developing Countries

WASHINGTON, KOMPAS.com – The World Bank has approved $12 billion in financing coronavirus vaccine distribution and purchases for developing countries.

Through the financing scheme, the WB expects poorer nations to also buy and distribute coronavirus tests and treatments while ultimately aiming to have up to 1 billion people inoculated.

The $12 billion “envelope" is part of a wider World Bank Group package of up to $160 billion to help developing countries fight the Covid-19 pandemic, the bank said in a statement late Tuesday.

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The World Bank’s Covid-19 emergency response programs have already reached 111 countries.

On the matter of coronavirus vaccine distribution, the bank said that citizens in developing countries also need access to safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines.

“We are extending and expanding our fast-track approach to address the Covid emergency so that developing countries have fair and equal access to vaccines,” said WB's President, David Malpass.

“Access to safe and effective vaccines and strengthened delivery systems is key to alter the course of the pandemic and help countries experiencing catastrophic economic and fiscal impacts move toward a resilient recovery,” he said in the statement.

Read also: Indonesian President Jokowi Urges Equal Access to Covid-19 Vaccine in UN Address

The International Finance Corporation, the private sector lending arm of the World Bank, is investing in vaccine manufacturers through a $4 billion Global Health Platform, the World Bank said.

Researchers are working on developing more than 170 potential coronavirus vaccines.

Development and deployment of such preventive vaccines are crucial to helping stem outbreaks of the coronavirus that has killed more than 1 million people and sickened more than 38 million, while devastating economies and leaving many millions jobless.

The world's richest countries have locked up most of the world's potential vaccine supply through 2021, raising worries that poor and vulnerable communities will not be able to get the shots.

Read also: Pope Francis Urges Rich Countries to Share Coronavirus Vaccine

Meanwhile, an ambitious international project to deliver coronavirus vaccines to the world’s poorest people, called Covax, is facing potential shortages of money, cargo planes, refrigeration, and vaccines themselves.