The Pandemic Fund considers an emergency financing model

In many ways, the Pandemic Fund’s ability to speed $128.9 million to the mpox outbreak response in sub-Saharan Africa was a matter of auspicious timing. The fund was in the middle of considering its second round of proposals. Several of the countries hardest hit by the outbreak had submissions that could easily be modified to accommodate a specific mpox response. The fund’s board was then able to quickly approve the funds to be used in 10 countries impacted by the disease. But what if the financing mechanism had not been in the midst of a funding round when mpox was declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization in August? That very question is why the Pandemic Fund’s board is considering adopting an emergency finance facility or window, when it meets today and tomorrow. The facility “would involve a much more simplified process to deal with such situations if we don’t have ongoing proposals,” Priya Basu, executive head of the Pandemic Fund Secretariat, told Devex. She said the board wants “to think about how to get better prepared for other future outbreaks.” It is not certain that the board will adopt the approach or, if it does, what the model might look like. Basu said it might result in a fast-track procedure that is introduced with a specific window to mount a targeted response to an outbreak. There would also be certain triggers to identify when it is appropriate to open that window. That might be the declaration of a PHEIC — a public health emergency of international concern — by WHO. It might also take into account the WHO’s system for grading emergencies. “The board will need to discuss what is the trigger that they want to employ,” Basu said. There have been several reasons the secretariat has approached the possibility of introducing an emergency fund with caution, she said, beginning with not wanting to replicate the work of other organizations or financing facilities. She said the secretariat wants the “pandemic fund's resources to be complementary and catalytic and galvanizing change and allowing existing institutions that are engaged in the space to be able to do more and do it quickly.” The fund has also been questioned about whether this would push it more into the realm of response, pulling focus from its other commitments to improving pandemic prevention and preparedness. But Basu said that “all these investments that they're making now in the context of mpox that our fast track initiative is going to support, not only helps [countries] deal with the current threat, but also helps them deal with future threats.” The funding for the mpox response will support five projects that will aid in the overall improvement of surveillance and early warning systems, strengthen laboratory capacities, and help strengthen the workforce. Basu said that when they made the decision to make the emergency funding available, it took countries only two weeks to rework proposals that had originally been submitted in May. The fund actually increased its overall envelope of available funds for its second round in order to accommodate the proposals — adding an additional $47.4 million on top of the pot of $500 million originally available. “Now that the projects have been approved, we've teed up the implementing entities to disperse the money as quickly as possible,” Basu said. The ability to offer emergency funding will depend on the fund’s capacity to raise funds. The secretariat is currently in the middle of an effort to raise an additional $2 billion in financing on top of the $2 billion that was initially raised to launch the fund. The additional funding might also give the facility the opportunity to think about other additional mechanisms, Basu said, including targeted windows for proposals on specific themes or funding windows dedicated to specific countries. “The beauty of a new institution is that there's the flexibility to adjust, and our board is very committed to learning lessons and incorporating those into how we do business in the future,” she said.