Just before 2023 closed, the Pandemic Fund, which was created to support pandemic preparedness efforts in low- and middle-income countries, announced a second call for proposals. This time, it’s offering a bigger envelope of half a billion dollars.
The demand for financing for the first call for proposals — whose final allocation was $338 million — was “eight times oversubscribed,” according to Priya Basu, executive head of the Pandemic Fund Secretariat. A total of 133 countries applied for funding in the first round, and 19 applicants were awarded grants covering 37 countries.
Several experts Devex spoke to commended some of the fund’s work to date, but they also highlighted outstanding challenges and areas the fund needs to overcome and address. These include raising money and unlocking additional funding from domestic resources, and ensuring the meaningful involvement of countries from the global south and civil society.