Norway strengthens global pandemic work – regjeringen.no
After more than a year of a pandemic, Norway is embarking on a new initiative to strengthen the world’s pandemic preparedness. This will reduce the risk and consequences of a new pandemic. – The Covid19 pandemic has shown the importance of strengthening global health preparedness, particularly in poor countries. If a virus is allowed to continue to develop in a country, it will threaten the health security of all of us, says Development Minister Anne Beathe Tvinnereim.
Norway is providing seed funds for a new financing mechanism for better global health preparedness. The aim is to strengthen all countries’ opportunities to prevent, detect and respond better in the face of new infection threats with a focus on countries with weak health systems and to strengthen global and regional cooperation. The mechanism is established in the World Bank with close links to the World Health Organization and other international and regional organisations. The first board meeting is 8-9. September.
– No country can prevent or deal with challenges that we just experienced with the covid-19 pandemic alone. This shared vulnerability shows the need for shared solutions. It is not a question of if the next pandemic will come, but when it will. Through this initiative, we make it possible for virus outbreaks to be detected earlier, notified more quickly and handled better, says Tvinnereim.
The new funding mechanism is created based on experiences of what does not work well enough during the covid-19 pandemic. Experts have long pointed to the importance of systems for monitoring new infection threats. Hospitals, primary care and the national public health institute must be ready to detect new threats and to implement pandemic measures quickly. The Covid-19 pandemic showed where this was to quickly develop effective vaccines, medicines and tests. Infection control equipment must be available. When the covid-19 pandemic hit, countries or health systems were not sufficiently prepared. The world’s leading global health institutions also did not have money available to finance the risk-based development or procurement of vaccines.
– Global health preparedness is good self-insurance, but it is also important in the fight against poverty. It is the poor who continue to suffer the most due to the covid-19 pandemic, and the price of being unprepared for the next pandemic is far too high for people in developing countries. Health crises have consequences for poverty, food security and development, says Tvinnereim.
Amplifies other crises
The Covid-19 pandemic and other health crises, with indirect effects on travel and trade, intensify other crises and have consequences for, among other things, food security and poverty, which in turn increases the risk of conflict and instability. Cooperation to promote solutions to joint global health challenges is therefore also important in foreign and security policy.
– Fast and efficient pandemic management and better future preparedness are a prerequisite for positive social, economic and political development. The pandemic has shown how great inequalities in access to vaccines, tests and treatment increase differently between rich and poor countries. This can lead to mistrust between countries and to multilateral mechanisms, which has consequences for foreign and security policy, says Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt.
Through the pandemic, Norway has played a leading role in the international effort to ensure equal access to vaccines, medicines, tests and protective equipment against covid-19. Together with South Africa, Norway has led the facilitation council in the Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A). ACT-A will be phased out in the autumn of 2022. It is lessons learned from this work that Norway is now taking into the new pandemic initiative.
– Countries must invest more in pandemic preparedness. In addition, I also need better local, regional and global systems for monitoring new viruses and bacteria, including resistant microbes. Norway is working to ensure a joint board in the new mechanism, with participation from low- and middle-income countries and civil society, says Tvinnereim.
The new financing mechanism for global health preparedness was established in June at the World Bank through a Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF).
Together with the World Bank, the WHO plays a central role in the establishment of the FIF.
18 countries, such as the USA, the EU, Germany, Indonesia, China, Singapore, and philanthropic players are stepping in with financial support. Financial contributors, low- and middle-income countries, civil society and philanthropic actors will sit on the board.
Norway enters with seed financing over the aid budget.
For more information
Facts about ACT-A
Together with South Africa, Norway has led the facilitation council in the Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A).
There was no common platform for international coordination of pandemic efforts in spring 2020. ACT-A has led the acute phase of the pandemic response.
The vaccine pillar has delivered 1.6 billion vaccine doses, including 76 percent of the vaccines to low-income countries. 68 percent of the world’s population has received at least one dose of vaccine, only 21 percent of the population in low-income countries has received their first vaccine.
ACT-A has delivered 951 million tests, as well as being important in the work to ensure equal treatment of covid-19 and protective equipment.
Norway and South Africa have taken the initiative for an independent evaluation of ACT-A. ACT-A plans to be phased out in autumn 2022. Norway will use the experiences from ACT-A in the work to strengthen global health preparedness.