Govt secures US$15M from WHO/World Bank to better prepare for future pandemics

The Government of Guyana through the Health Ministry has secured over US$15 million in funding from the World Health Organization (WHO)/World Bank’s US$1.5B Pandemic Fund.
This was revealed by Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony on Tuesday during his ministry’s end-of-year press briefing.
“This year we were very successful in mobilizing resources. We wrote a proposal to the Pandemic Fund, which was established after COVID-19 to look at how countries can better prepare for future pandemics. The fund right now has about US$1.5 billion and they have been making calls for proposals from different countries. This year, when they put out the second call, we put in a proposal and we were very successful.”
The Pandemic Fund finances critical investments to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response capacities at national, regional, and global levels, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries.

Recognizing the need to address chronic under-investments in pandemic PPR capacity, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, in April 2022, the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors requested that the World Bank begin exploring the process to develop and set up a new fund.
With broad support from the G20, the World Health Organization (WHO), founding donors, civil society, and other stakeholders, the World Bank’s Board of Directors approved the proposal to establish the Pandemic Fund on June 30, 2022. According to the Health Minister, the country will be able to use these funds by March 2025.
Minister Anthony also highlighted that through another programme with the World Bank which aims to bolster the surveillance of diseases in both humans and animals. The country will receive an additional US$7 million in financing.
“We’re doing this particular programme with the World Bank and it would be adding another US$7 million. This programme would focus on surveillance of diseases both among the human and animal populations because we want to detect if there is a disease in the animal population that jumps over into the human population.”
The minister added that in a bid to enhance the capabilities of its medical facilities, the government will allocate funds from the programme to improve the country’s laboratory capacity, particularly the National Public Health Reference Laboratory (NPHRL) which will receive an investment of some US$2 Million.
“Part of this will go to enhancing the work that we can do at the National Public Health Reference Laboratory (NPHRL). We will be investing approximately US$2 Million in the National Public Health Reference Laboratory (NPHRL) so that we can move that lab up to a level three (3) facility and we will be adding a new division to that lab where we would be able to do molecular surveillance.”
Additionally, Dr Anthony highlighted that through the Global Fund, the ministry has already secured several grants to tackle several common diseases such as Malaria and HIV.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) is a multilateral financing mechanism that relies on public and private contributions on a three-year replenishment cycle.
The fund invests more than US$5 billion a year to combat HIV, TB and malaria and ensure a healthier, safer, more equitable future for all.