World Bank to provide $160 bn financing for Covid-19 recovery

BUUMBA CHIMBULU writes THE World Bank plans to provide up to US$160 billion in financing from April 2020-June 2021, for mitigating the health emergency as well as dealing with the economic and social impact of Covid-19. This effort involves all the Bank Group’s financing arms, with about 2/3 of this financing from the public sector arm, says World Bank Managing Director of Operations, Axel van Trotsenburg. Mr Trotsenburg said the group was organizing a crisis response across the three stages of relief, restructuring, and resilient recovery. He explained in a statement that the first stage involved emergency response to the health threat posed by Covid-19 and its immediate social, economic, and financial impacts.  “Then, as countries bring the pandemic under control and start reopening their economies, the restructuring stage focuses on strengthening health systems for future crises;  “Restoring people’s lives and livelihoods through education, jobs, and access to health care; and helping firms and financial institutions regain a solid footing,” Mr Trotsenburg said. He indicated that the resilient recovery stage entailed helping countries build a more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient future in a world transformed by the pandemic. This, he explained, was best captured by the “building back better” concept, which meant putting in place the kind of interventions that met the short-term needs but also maintained a line of sight on longer term development challenges.   “There are four priorities for the broad, fast action that the World Bank Group has underway: saving lives threatened by the pandemic; protecting the poor and vulnerable; helping save jobs and businesses; and working to build a more resilient recovery,” Mr Trotsenburg said. Mr Trotsenburg said the financing demand were truly staggering and only through close cooperation could help meet this challenge.  “In tackling this crisis, international cooperation assumes a new level of importance. “We will need to work closely between the public and private sectors, particularly helping the private sector get back on its feet and in this way, facilitate the preservation and creation of new jobs,” he said. The Sun