New Delhi: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has come up with a $50 billion proposal to end the Covid-19 pandemic by vaccinating at least 40% of the population in all countries by the end of 2021 and at least 60% by the first half of 2022.
The latest research by the IMF analyzes multiple dimensions of the fight against the pandemic and proposes realistic targets to bring the pandemic substantially under control everywhere—and the means to achieve them.
Building on the work of other agencies, the proposal aims to:
• vaccinate at least 40 percent of the population in all countries by the end of 2021 and at least 60 percent by the first half of 2022,
• track and insure against downside risks, and
• ensure widespread testing and tracing, maintain adequate stocks of therapeutics, and enforce public health measures in places where vaccine coverage is low.
Importantly, the strategy requires not just commitments but upfront financing, upfront vaccine donations, and “at-risk” investment for the world to insure against downside scenarios, the IMF said.
The proposal’s total cost of around $50 billion would include grants, national government resources, and concessional financing.
There is a strong case for grant financing of at least $35 billion. The good news is G20 governments have already identified as important to address the $22 billion grant funding gap noted by the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator. This leaves an estimated $13 billion in additional grant contributions needed.
The remainder of the overall financing plan—around $15 billion—could come from national governments, potentially supported by COVID-19 financing facilities created by multilateral development banks.
Saving lives and livelihoods should need no justification, but a faster end to the pandemic could also inject the equivalent of $9 trillion into the global economy by 2025 due to a faster resumption of economic activity. Advanced economies, likely to spend the most in this effort, would see the highest return on public investment in modern history—capturing 40 percent of the cumulative $9 trillion in global GDP gains and roughly $1 trillion in additional tax revenues, the IMF added.