Devex: From crisis to clarity: Getting a handle on global pandemics
Keith Hansen, vice president for human development at the World Bank Group

“…[O]ne thing that both Ebola and now Zika have made clear is that the world has to get serious about pandemic preparedness and response. … That’s why in the past decade we at the WBG have stepped up our focus on the threat of global pandemics. … Together with the World Health Organization and many other partners, and with the support of the Group of Seven, we are developing a new Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility. … The PEF aims to fill a gap in the current pandemic response financing architecture, which is too dependent on ‘pass the hat,’ donor-by-donor financing that varies in scale and often comes in too late for a fast-moving, deadly outbreak. In so doing it will help save lives and money, speed up response times, and bring more predictability, discipline, and rigor to country and global pandemic response…” (3/4).