The big winner at Thursday’s global COVID-19 summit was a fund to prevent future pandemics — even while the current pandemic response faces a big funding gap.
Today we’re also worried about aid donors’ decisions to redirect funding for domestic Ukrainian refugee hosting costs, and learning about a day in the life of an internal communications officer.
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The second global COVID-19 summit — hosted virtually on Thursday by the United States, Belize, Germany, Indonesia, and Senegal — benefited from some major expectation management in the lead-up. The summit was delayed multiple times, and it finally arrived after the U.S. Congress repeatedly failed to approve any additional funding for the global COVID-19 response despite White House warnings that it would mean shutting down global vaccination programs.
Against that backdrop, Thursday’s participants managed to find about $3.2 billion in new funding, along with commitments related to licensing agreements and a generic agreement to lower the price of oral antiviral treatment, Sara Jerving reports.
Donors committed nearly $1 billion in seed funding for a global health security financial intermediary fund to prepare for future pandemics, which will be established at the World Bank.
COVID-19 summit: A ‘win against complacency,’ but still falls short
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Agree to disagree
A compromise proposal at the World Trade Organization to temporarily waive patent protections on COVID-19 vaccines is not inspiring a lot of confidence.
“The deal eases some existing barriers to issuing compulsory licenses for patents on COVID-19 vaccines, including forgoing the requirement that most vaccines manufactured under the license be used by the country that issued it. But it also introduces new impediments, particularly a condition that countries list each patent they intend to waive, which experts say is almost impossible given the constantly shifting global patent landscape,” Andrew Green writes for Devex.
Read: TRIPS waiver compromise tabled at WTO finds few takers
Breathing room
The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare a lot of disparities between communities with access to health and social services, and those without. One basic need that went largely unnoticed and underfunded before the pandemic is medical oxygen — even though lack of access to oxygen was already causing about 1 million preventable deaths every year.
Catherine Cheney reports that the acute need for medical oxygen for patients with COVID-19 created a groundswell of interest and innovation to shore up supplies and supply chains in lower-income countries. Can it last?
Read: Can COVID-19 breathe new life into medical oxygen innovations? (Pro)
+ Devex Pro subscribers can read about a new biotech company focused on developing therapeutics for COVID-19 and its variants, as well as future pandemics. Not gone Pro yet? Sign up and start your 15-day free trial.
Aid champions under fire
Norway is the latest country to divert aid money to fund the reception of Ukrainian refugees at home.
My colleague Vince Chadwick had reported that Sweden earmarked almost one-fifth of its aid budget for in-country-refugee costs, which triggered concerns from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and others about a poor precedent being set by one of the world’s largest and most generous donors. It seems they were right to be worried.
Under the Norwegian government’s revised budget, out Thursday, some NOK 4 billion ($406 million) will be redirected to cover the cost of hosting Ukrainian refugees in Norway.
Dagfinn Høybråten, general secretary of Norwegian Church Aid, tweeted:
“After we have spent billions of kroner to save our own economy during the corona crisis, Norwegian People’s Aid refuses to accept the premise that Norway must now choose between accepting Ukrainian refugees or helping a hungry small farmer in Mozambique. We can afford to do both without heating up our economy,” Henriette K. Westhrin of Norwegian People’s Aid said in a press release.
The battle to preserve aid budgets for low-income countries is shaping up to be a key challenge for 2022. The European Union’s commissioner responsible for development policy, Jutta Urpilainen, told the European Parliament this week that her “highest priority” is defending budgets for partner countries in Africa and elsewhere, in the face of financing needs in Ukraine.
ICYMI: Sweden pulls $1B in foreign aid for Ukrainian refugees at home
+ Catch up on all our coverage of the humanitarian response to the war in Ukraine.
The real story
Have you ever wondered what an internal communications officer in global development does? We have. So my colleague Justin Sablich spoke to Mercy Kolok at UNICEF, who recently transitioned into that role, to learn what a typical day at work looks like for her.
“A constant in my daily life is updating the internal, and sometimes, external communication channels with news or stories about staff and their reflections … It’s great because we get to see different sides of the people we work with,” she says.
Devex jobs: Career advice from a UNICEF communication officer
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Daily double
Readers of Newswire would have aced this question that appeared on a recent episode of Jeopardy!
In other news
At a White House dinner with Southeast Asian leaders Thursday, U.S. President Joe Biden pledged $150 million to counter China’s influence in the region. [Al Jazeera]
North Korea has reported six deaths from COVID-19 a day after declaring a lockdown and announcing its first official COVID-19 cases. [The Guardian]
The U.N. Security Council called an emergency meeting yesterday over further restrictions on the rights of girls and women in Afghanistan. [AP]
Vince Chadwick contributed to this edition.
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About the author
Michael Igoe@AlterIgoe
Michael Igoe is a Senior Reporter with Devex, based in Washington, D.C. He covers U.S. foreign aid, global health, climate change, and development finance. Prior to joining Devex, Michael researched water management and climate change adaptation in post-Soviet Central Asia, where he also wrote for EurasiaNet. Michael earned his bachelor's degree from Bowdoin College, where he majored in Russian, and his master’s degree from the University of Montana, where he studied international conservation and development.
