## Views and Commentaries example

_IMF Blog, April 3, 2020_

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**Canonical URL:** [Views and Commentaries example](https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2020/04/03/views-and-commentaries-example)

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## Bibliographic details
- Authors: Kristalina Georgieva, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
- Published: April 3, 2020

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### Context and purpose
- Op-ed first published on The Telegraph by Kristalina Georgieva and Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
- Date: April 3, 2020.
- Focus: joint appeal by the WHO and the IMF on coordinated health and economic responses to COVID-19, with emphasis on emerging market and developing economies.

### Core argument
- At face value there is a trade-off between saving lives and saving livelihoods; the authors argue this is a false dilemma.
- Getting the virus under control is presented as a prerequisite to saving livelihoods.
- WHO and IMF roles:
  - WHO: protect health of people and advise on health priorities.
  - IMF: protect health of the world economy by advising on economic priorities and providing financing.

### Urgent needs and priorities
- Health expenditures should be placed at the top of the priority list as financing reaches countries in need.
- Specific health spending priorities listed:
  - Paying salaries to doctors and nurses.
  - Supporting hospitals and emergency rooms.
  - Establishing make-shift field clinics.
  - Buying protective gear and essential medical equipment.
  - Carrying out public awareness campaigns about measures like hand washing.
- In many places health systems are unprepared for an onslaught of COVID-19 patients; boosting health-system capacity is paramount.

### Complementary economic support measures
- Economic support measures should go together with health spending, not as a substitute.
- Targeted economy-wide priorities include:
  - Reducing unemployment.
  - Minimising bankruptcies.
  - Ensuring recovery over time.
- Specific instruments mentioned:
  - Cash transfers.
  - Wage subsidies.
  - Short-time work programs.
  - Strengthening unemployment benefits and social safety nets.
  - Limiting the rise in borrowing costs.

### Challenges highlighted
- Economic activity is plummeting as infections and containment measures affect workers, firms, and supply chains.
- Job losses and uncertainty reduce spending; financial conditions tighten.
- The oil price collapse hits commodity exporters.
- Cross-border spillovers amplify effects.
- Vulnerabilities in countries with large informal economies:
  - Families depend on daily wages to survive.
  - Highly congested urban slums make social distancing impossible.

### International cooperation and roles
- WHO’s coordination role:
  - Ensuring production and delivery of medical supplies in an effective, efficient, and equitable manner (e.g., facilitating advance purchase agreements).
  - Working with suppliers of personal protective equipment for health workers to ensure functioning supply chains.
- Collaboration with other international organisations can be effective (example cited: World Bank’s capacity to aggregate demand to purchase medical supplies in bulk).

### IMF financing and debt-relief actions
- IMF emergency response capacity: doubling from $50 billion up to $100 billion to make it possible for countries to get twice as much money from the Fund as had been made available during emergencies.
- Total lending capacity: $1 trillion is now secured thanks to decisive actions of its membership.
- Increasing capacity to ease debt service obligations of poorest members through the Catastrophe Containment Relief Trust, funded by generous donors providing grant resources.
- Joint advocacy with the World Bank for a standstill of debt service from the poorest countries to official bilateral creditors for as long as the world economy is paralysed by the pandemic.

### Final appeal and rationale
- The course of the global health crisis and the fate of the global economy are inseparably intertwined.
- Fighting the pandemic is presented as necessary for economic rebound.
- Joint appeal: leaders must step up immediately to prioritise people living in emerging markets during this crisis.

*Kristalina Georgieva is Managing Director of the IMF, and Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is Director-General of the WHO.*

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2020/04/03/views-and-commentaries-example_