The Lancet Global Health: Opportunities to finance pandemic preparedness
Rebecca Katz, co-director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University, and Richard Seifman, consultant

“…Every three years, the World Bank undergoes a process to replenish the International Development Association (IDA), with the current effort known as IDA18. … IDA is one of the best, if not the very best, significant multilateral funding mechanism to address critical pandemic challenges on a sustained basis in low-income countries … [T]he current IDA18 proposal is modest, with an expressed goal of supporting between 15 and 25 IDA countries in (i) developing pandemic preparedness plans, and (ii) supporting the development of frameworks for multisectoral pandemic preparedness, response, and recovery. … With the amount of money currently being considered for IDA18, IDA could go well beyond supporting even 25 countries in pandemic preparedness. … Before the World Bank Group annual meeting in October 2016, donor countries and low-income countries can review their positions on what is absolutely critical for development and what can be done over the next three years to enhance pandemic preparedness and population health, and request modifications to the IDA18 guidance. For our collective health security, we need to marshal sustained technical and financial support for pandemic preparedness in low-income countries. IDA18 is the right instrument to encourage the poorest nations of the world to expand public health investment” (9/28).