The World Bank From Crisis to Green, Resilient and Inclusive Recovery report shares the work by International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA) from July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021. The World Bank Group has committed a record $157 billion in bank group financing to support country responses to the pandemic in fiscal 2021, the most enormous crisis response for the group. Despite efforts by the World Bank to safely distribute vaccinations mechanisms to 140 low and medium countries through collaborative efforts through GAVI, WHO, and UNICEF, the reality on the ground is deplorable. G20’s Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) is one excellent initiative started by World Bank and IMF. The initiative has already given more than $5 billion in debt relief to more than 40 countries, expected to end this year. The report discusses how the World Bank Group also includes IFC, MIGA, and ICSID, the largest multilateral provider of funds for climate finance initiatives, allocating over $26 billion in 2021, taking the cumulative amount to over $83 billion in five years.
The vaccination data is highly skewed towards developed nations despite all the efforts. According to The People’s Vaccine report, rich companies promised to donate out of the 1.8 billion vaccine doses, only 14 percent have been delivered to the countries that need them. WHO estimates only 7 percent of Africa’s population is fully vaccinated, with less than 10 percent of Africa’s 54 nations, projected to hit the year-end target of fully vaccinating 40 percent of their people. The problem in Africa is further exacerbated due to the shortfall of 0.3ml auto-disable syringes used for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination.
Graph | Data Source: Our World in Data | The middle Road
Based on UNICEF estimates, Africa faces an acute shortfall of up to 2.2 billion auto-disable syringes for COVID-19 vaccination and routine immunization in 2022. COVAX has accelerated its equitable vaccination effort, but the continent faces a shortfall of 275 million COVID-19 doses for achieving the 40 percent of vaccination of its population. A lot needs to be done to smoothen out a just and uniform vaccination rollout globally. Many civic organizations are doing their part, but it’s time for advanced countries to further vaccination largesse as booster doses begin in many countries. Its the ethical duty of developed countries to enable an ecosystem to foster enhanced vaccinations for low income and conflict-prone countries.