State of the Pandemic, World Health Organization, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, International Monetary Fund, Economy, Costa Rica, Global
development

Organisations. World Health Organization WHO, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs UN OCHA, International Monetary Fund IMF
Period. 30 May - 10 June 2020

An article by the WHO Director General and President of Costa Rica remind us that COVID-19 will remain a global threat everywhere as long as it is present anywhere, demanding a collective and collaborative global response. At the World Health Assembly last month, Costa Rica took leadership in proposing a new COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) that would allow all participating countries, research partnerships and companies to share data, knowledge and intellectual property relating to diagnostics, treatments and vaccines for COVID-19. The mechanism was launched in the first week of June and has attracted at least 30 countries after resolutions by the WHA and UN General Assembly were adopted in support of “universal, timely, and equitable access to health technologies.”

At the Global Vaccine Summit on June 4, countries, philanthropic foundations and private companies pledged US$8.8 billion towards the WHO Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, which places special emphasis on access.

While the IMF reports that countries have committed over $10 trillion USD in global fiscal response to the pandemic (of which 90% is in OECD countries), the monthly funding update by UNOCHA shows that only about $2 billion has been pledged thus far for the COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan ( that requests 6.7 B USD). This represents less than 18% of requested emergency funding for UN and aid agencies needed for supplies and logistical support to reach those in urgent need of assistance.

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