Ending the Pandemic: The Road to an Inclusive Recovery

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Location: Meeting Halls A&B, HQ1-3-430A&B

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The heads of the IMF, World Bank Group, WHO and WTO convene to discuss accelerating global access to vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics, and how to measure this progress. What are the biggest hurdles to ending the pandemic and supporting a broad-based global recovery?

Speakers

Kristalina Georgieva

Managing Director, IMF

Kristalina Georgieva is the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). She is the first person from an emerging market economy to lead the IMF since its inception in 1944. Before joining the Fund, Ms. Georgieva was Chief Executive Officer of the World Bank and also served as Interim President for a time. Previously, she served at the European Commission as Vice President for Budget and Human Resources – and as Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response. She was named “European of the Year” and “Commissioner of the Year” by European Voice for her leadership in the European Union’s humanitarian response to crises.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Director-General, World Trade Organization (WTO)

Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is the Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). She is an economist and international development expert with over 30 years of experience. She was Chair of the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (2016 – 2020), the African Risk Capacity (2014 – 2020) and Co-Chair of The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate.  Previously, she served as Senior Advisor at Lazard and sat on the Boards of Standard Chartered PLC and Twitter Inc. Dr Okonjo-Iweala was appointed as an AU COVID-19 Special Envoy and WHO COVID-19 Special Envoy.

Dr Okonjo-Iweala served twice as Nigeria’s Finance Minister (2003-2006, 2011-2015), the first woman to hold the position, and spent a 25-year career at the World Bank rising to the No.2 position of Managing Director.

In 2020 Dr Okonjo-Iweala was named Forbes African of the Year. She has been ranked by Fortune as one of the 50 Greatest World Leaders (2015) and by Forbes as one of the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in the World consecutively for four years. She holds a Bachelor’s in Economics from Harvard University and a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

David Malpass

President, World Bank

David R. Malpass, was selected as 13th President of the World Bank Group by its Board of Executive Directors on April 5, 2019. His five-year term began on April 9.

Mr. Malpass previously served as Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs for the United States. Mr. Malpass represented the United States in international settings, including the G-7 and G-20 Deputy Finance Ministerial, World Bank–IMF Spring and Annual Meetings, and meetings of the Financial Stability Board, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

In 2018, Mr. Malpass advocated for the capital increase for the IBRD and IFC as part of a reform agenda featuring sustainable lending practices, more efficient use of capital, and a focus on raising living standards in poor countries. He was also instrumental in advancing the Debt Transparency Initiative, adopted by the Bank Group and the IMF, to increase public disclosure of debt and thereby reduce the frequency and severity of debt crises.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu

Director-General, WHO

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was elected WHO Director-General for a five-year term by WHO Member States at the Seventieth World Health Assembly in May 2017. In doing so, he was the first WHO Director-General elected from among multiple candidates, and was the first person from the WHO African Region to head the world’s leading public health agency.

Born in the Eritrean city of Asmara, Dr Tedros graduated from the University of Asmara with a Bachelor of Biology, before earning a Master of Science (MSc) in Immunology of Infectious Diseases from the University of London, a Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) in Community Health from the University of Nottingham and an Honorary Fellowship from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Following his studies, Dr Tedros returned to Ethiopia to support the delivery of health services, first working as a field-level malariologist, before heading a regional health service and later serving in Ethiopia’s federal government for over a decade as Minister of Health and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2005-2016.

Prior to his election as WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros held many leadership positions in global health, including as Chair of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, Chair of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, and Co-chair of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Board.

After taking office as Director-General, Dr Tedros initiated the most significant transformation in the Organization’s history and focused WHO’s work on the mission to “Promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable.”

Full biography: https://www.who.int/director-general/biography

Moderator

Becky Anderson

Anchor, CNN International

Becky Anderson is one of CNN International's highest profile anchors. She hosts Connect the World with Becky Anderson and also serves as the Managing Editor of CNN Abu Dhabi.

In these roles Anderson has a distinctive regional perspective on some of today's most important news stories. She has anchored special broadcasts from Tehran to Jerusalem, via Istanbul and Beirut, bringing a range of interviews, reports and packages to CNN International viewers around the globe.

Anderson has also presented on wider-network stories such as the CNN Freedom Project and CNN’s coverage of the World Economic Forum in Davos. She has received several major accolades for her reporting, most recently as part of CNN’s Emmy Award-winning coverage of Turkey’s incursion into Syria.

Recommended Reading

Seminar Reports

The Multilateral Leaders Task Force led by the heads of the IMF, World Bank, World Health Organization, and World Trade Organization convened to discuss accelerating global access to vaccines and finding ways to support an inclusive global recovery.

Key Points:

  • Boost vaccine supply and access. Panelists noted the target of vaccinating at least 40 percent of the world population by end-2021 and 70 percent by mid-2022. Anderson highlighted the vaccination divide between advanced economies and low-income countries. Malpass highlighted the gap between vaccines donated by advanced economies and actual delivery, particularly in Africa. Ghebreyesu stressed that booster shots in advanced economies at this stage is unfair to low-income countries.
  • Ramp up production capacity and financing. Georgieva pointed to the large financing needs to achieve the global vaccination targets, and the contribution from the IMF, including the SDR allocation. Okonjo-Iweala stressed the need to improve local production capacity and self-reliance in African countries. Panelists called for disclosure of contracts and transparency in vaccine delivery.
  • Need for collaboration. Panelists called for solidarity in delivering vaccines. Okonjo-Iweala highlighted the need to share intellectual property and transfer technology for manufacturing vaccines. Tedros noted the importance of providing incentives to the private sector.
  • Prepare for the next crisis. Okonjo-Iweala highlighted gaps in globally networked surveillance and health research, reliance on national health systems, adequate supply and access of medical suppliers and global governance. Tedros stressed the need to learn from this pandemic, document lessons and implement recommendations. Georgieva called for building institutional capacity to improve resilience for future crises.

Quotes:

If the world is to build strength and capacity to face health risks in the future, now is the time to approach this in a comprehensive manner.” Kristalina Georgieva

We need to make sure that technology is transferred so developing countries can manufacture [vaccines].Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

“The key is to have the finance ministers and health ministers seek contracts and try to get delivery dates earlier.David Malpass

We have seen many challenges that could have been addressed if we had a legal framework or agreement that could guide us—a pandemic treaty or pandemic agreement.” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu

Contributor: Bo Zhao, IMF, Secretary’s Department