The Guardian: World Bank ‘missed vital opportunities’ to support Covid response, says Oxfam
“Millions of people in low-income countries have been forced to go without healthcare or have had to pay for it during the coronavirus pandemic, despite billions of pounds in emergency World Bank funding, research has found. The World Bank’s $6bn (£4.45bn) emergency health fund to 71 countries in response to Covid-19 failed to strengthen health systems or remove financial barriers to using them, according to an Oxfam report published on Friday…” (Hodal, 12/4).

U.N. News: Revealed: The cost of the pandemic on world’s poorest countries
“More than 32 million of the world’s poorest people face being pulled back into extreme poverty because of COVID-19, leading U.N. economists said on Thursday, highlighting data showing that the pandemic is likely to cause the worst economic crisis in decades among least developed countries (LDCs). In a call for urgent investment and support from the wider international community, the U.N. trade and development agency, UNCTAD, warned that the new coronavirus risked reversing years of ‘painstaking progress’ in poverty reduction, nutrition, and education…” (12/3).