The International Monetary Fund, the World Bank Group, and the World Health Organization Step Up Cooperation on Pandemic Preparedness

IMF News, October 4, 2024

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Heads of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank Group (WBG), and the World Health Organization (WHO) agreed on broad principles for cooperation on pandemic preparedness (October 4, 2024).
Purpose: scale up support to countries to prevent, detect and respond to public health threats through the IMF’s Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST), the WBG’s financial and technical support, and WHO’s technical expertise and in-country capabilities.
The RST allows eligible member countries to access long-term financing at low interest rates to help implement reforms that address structural challenges to the stability of the economy, such as those posed by pandemics, and to enhance countries’ health systems resilience.

Operating within their respective mandates and policies, the IMF, the WBG, and WHO will leverage their expertise to enhance pandemic preparedness in member countries, building on synergies and complementarity of each institution’s in-country analysis and operations.
Collaboration aims to strengthen:
- design and articulation of effective policy, institutional and public financial management reforms supported by the IMF’s Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF);
- policy reforms and investments supported by the WBG;
- technical and operational support provided by WHO.
Member countries will work to improve the resilience of their health systems and their ability to respond better to all health emergencies.

WHO and the WBG will continue to take the lead on health-related development policies and, with other multilateral development banks and The Pandemic Fund, on specific project investments for pandemic preparedness.
RST financing will not be earmarked for specific projects.
Pandemic preparedness policy reform measures supported by RSF arrangements will be informed by existing data, analytics and operational engagement of WHO, the WBG, and country authorities.
Pandemic preparedness reforms will build on each institution’s area of expertise.
RSF programs will focus on macro-critical policy reforms within the IMF’s expertise and complement work carried out by the WBG and WHO to maximize both the financial resources and technical expertise available to countries.
RSF Reform measures can include policy actions aimed at enhancing the readiness of finance and health systems to respond effectively to future health emergencies.

Stepped-up cooperation between the IMF, the WBG, and WHO is expected to better serve countries’ efforts on pandemic preparedness by combining financing (RST/RSF), WBG investments and technical support, and WHO operational capabilities.
Rationale emphasized by institutional leaders:
- IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva: collaboration will help institutions complement and leverage each other’s expertise; RST allows eligible member countries to access affordable, long-term financing to address structural challenges that threaten macroeconomic stability.
- WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: COVID-19 highlighted need for new sources of financing to bolster health systems; WHO will work with the IMF and WBG to unlock financing from the Resilience and Sustainability Trust and support countries to put it to work.
- World Bank Group President Ajay Banga: deepened collaboration focuses response on helping countries better prepare and respond to public health threats, including planning for deployable health workforce, laboratories that can ramp up testing, and surge capacity.

Press Release No. 24/346, October 4, 2024.