Riyadh: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced that it has provided support to the financial intermediation fund for health security called the Pandemic Fund, with an amount of $50 million, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
This came in the speech of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, delivered on his behalf by Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah during the G20 summit.
This initiative comes within the outputs of the Saudi presidency of the group in 2020.
At the time, the leaders of the group praised the initiative of the Presidency of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to start discussing solutions to address gaps in global pandemic preparedness and response procedures, including Saudi Arabia’s proposal to launch an initiative to access pandemic control tools.
According to Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the fund aims to provide financing to low- and middle-income countries and regions; to enhance its preventive capacity against future pandemics, as well as its ability to prepare for and respond to them at the national, regional and global levels.
It will fund laboratory systems, disease surveillance and emergency communications, management, community engagement, and the health workforce.
The support provided by Saudi Arabia – in addition to the support provided by countries, institutions and international non-profit organizations, totaling $1.4 billion – contributes to strengthening efforts at the regional and global levels to share epidemiological data, coordinate procurement of medical and non-medical countermeasures, and harmonize regulatory measures.
