Global COVID-19 fund launched by WHO, UN Foundation, partners

The United Nations Foundation, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Swiss Philanthropy Foundation have created a global new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) fund called Solidarity Response Fund.

The first-of-its-kind fund will raise money from a broad variety of supporters to back the efforts of WHO and partners to assist countries with responding to the pandemic.

Private individuals as well as institutions and corporations from all over the world can directly contribute to global response work.

“We are at a critical point in the global response to COVID-19 – we need everyone to get involved in this massive effort to keep the world safe,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, in a news release WHO sent to members of the press and which US and Global News also received. “We are immensely grateful to the UN Foundation and the Swiss Philanthropy Foundation for coming forward to help us set up this fund. A lot of people and institutions have been saying they want to contribute to the fight against the novel coronavirus. Now they can.”

The fund already has major support lined up, with Google and Facebook setting up a matching scheme for the money donated via their platforms.

Individual donors are also donating to the fund via the fund’s website at www.COVID19ResponseFund.org.

UN Foundation president and CEO Elizabeth Cousens stated, “We can’t ignore the fact that this is a truly global problem – one that requires truly global solutions. The case for global cooperation could not be clearer – communities everywhere are affected, and people want to contribute. This new fund will create space for people everywhere, together, to fight this virus.”

The COVID-19 fund will help particularly the most vulnerable and at-risk countries with weakest health systems in getting ready for and taking action to the crisis, including preventing virus transmission, detecting cases fast and caring for the patients. The actions the funds will be directed towards are outlined in the COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan.

Funds are being sought for equipping diagnostic laboratories, establishing and maintaining intensive care units, providing protective equipment for frontline health workers, improving surveillance and data collection, accelerating research and development of therapeutics and vaccines, strengthening supply chains and taking other important steps to broaden the public health response to the pandemic.

Image credit - Thorkild Tylleskar (CC BY-SA 3.0)