The catastrophic costs of pandemics and zoonotic outbreaks with pandemic potential have a long and notorious history in human civilization, and presage an increasingly alarming future prognosis.
... See More + Highly virulent infectious diseases, such as the plague, cholera, and influenza, have repeatedly swept through human societies, causing death, economic chaos, and political and social disorder. As the threat of pandemics grows in a globalized world where viruses move and mutate faster than ever before, so does the case for increasing the world's resilience and capacity to prepare, detect and respond to epidemic threats. Vaccines are a critical component of that response. However, the vaccine pipeline is weak for most epidemic threats, and there is an urgent and pressing need for a system that will advance vaccine candidates as far as possible before epidemics emerge, and then run efficacy trials immediately when they do. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) was created to address the financing gap for development of vaccines for Epidemic Infectious Diseases (EIDs). The mission of CEPI is fully aligned with the Bank's twin goals of ending poverty and promoting shared prosperity. By partnering with CEPI, the Bank will twin the financing for development of vaccines with several ongoing initiatives to potentially leverage vaccine development and deployment to higher levels of effectiveness and impact. The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section II provides the strategic context and rationale for the Bank's engagement as Trustee. Section III presents the proposed Trustee engagement. Section IV outlines risks identified along with mitigation measures. Section V includes the proposed recommendation.
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Deadly infectious pandemics will mark humanity's future, as they have shaped its past. Neither individual governments nor the global community can entirely prevent the emergence of infectious threats.
... See More + But we can be much better prepared. This report by the International Working Group on Financing Preparedness (IWG) proposes ways in which national governments and development partners can finance investments in country and regional preparedness and response capacities for pandemics and other health emergencies. Preparedness for pandemics refers to health and non-health interventions, capabilities, and capacities at community, country, regional, and global levels. Their purpose is to prevent, detect, contain and respond to the spread of disease and other hazards, mitigating social disruptions and limiting risks to international travel and trade.
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What is commonly called the tourism sector is in fact part of the wholesale and retail trade or commerce sector under the System of National Accounts.
... See More + However, due to the growing importance of tourism activities, especially for some countries where tourism is a significant contributor to gross domestic product, efforts have been made in recent times to measure their value under a separate satellite account. The tourism sector is highly vulnerable to the effects and impacts of disasters of every kind. This is due to three main reasons: first, the frequent or usual location of tourism assets in vulnerable coastal areas; second, the volatility of tourism demand due to fear or misinformation about the possible consequences of disasters; and third, in view of the seasonality of the high-demand tourism season, a disaster may mean an entire season’s worth of lost income. This paper describes the procedure to assess the effects of a disaster on the tourism sector, using the time-proven methodology originally developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNECLAC) (Handbook for estimating the socio-economic and environmental impact of disasters, 4 volumes, United Nations, 2003), further developed by the World Bank´s Global Facility for Disaster Recovery and Reduction (GFDRR) (Guidance Notes for Damage, Loss and Needs Assessment, 3 volumes, The World Bank, Washington, D.C., 2010), and now expanded and adopted by the Post-disaster needs assessment (PDNA). Application of the methodology enables the assessment of disasters’ economic and social impact on the tourism sector, and the estimation of post-disaster needs for recovery and reconstruction.
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Last April’s East Asia update noted the threat to regional and global public health from outbreaks of avian influenza A (H5N1) in East Asia. Since then outbreaks among wild birds and poultry have spread to Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Romania and Croatia, while, in East Asia, new outbreaks this year have occurred in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR), Thailand, and Vietnam.
... See More + While the bulk of human cases so far are thought to be the result of transmission of the virus from animals to humans, there is great concern that genetic changes will allow the H5N1 virus to achieve the capacity for efficient and sustained transmission among humans, leading to a human influenza pandemic, with high levels of illness, death and other human, economic, and social costs in East Asia and around the world. As a result the question of how to prevent or prepare for such a pandemic is quickly vaulting to a top priority for governments around the world. Since a human influenza pandemic will rapidly spread all over the world, stopping or controlling avian flu is therefore a true global public good, which all countries have an interest in acquiring. Thus, while country level leadership and engagement is essential for success, it must be backed by global resources.
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The development objective of Emergency Operation for Development Project (EODP) for Iraq is to support the country in the reconstruction of damaged infrastructure and the restoration of public services delivery in Targeted Municipal Areas.
... See More + Some of the negative impacts include : i) emissions of the construction equipment and trucks used to transport construction materials; ii) noise emissions from the equipment engines used during the construction activities; iii) improper disposal of any liquid or solid wastes into the river may pollute its waters or block the water flow; iv) soil erosion could be caused by the removal of vegetation and large scale excavation activities for the construction; v) temporary storage on the site area; and management and disposal of wastes; vi) except for agricultural crops, fruit trees and farmland animals, there is no observed wild life or significant naturally grown plants or flora species due to the human activities and presence in the area; vii) disturbance and inconvenience to the local population may result due to the route diversion; viii) risks posed to human health by accidentsresulting from the use of heavy construction equipment. ix) socially harmful consequences of bridge operation are not anticipated. Some of the mitigation measures include : i) machines and equipment are periodically checked and maintained to ensure their good working condition; ii) equipment must be kept in good working order and where appropriate fitted with silencers which are kept in good working order; iii) wastewater from the worker rest areas or construction offices should be contained in solid bottom containers and should be removed regularly from site by means of authorized contractors. the wastewater should be disposed in wastewater treatment plants as determined by the municipality; iv) to prevent soil contamination by oil/grease spills, leakages or releases, all manipulations of oil derivatives in the process of construction and provision of the fuel to the machines should be performed with maximum care; v) minimize waste generation on site; vi)Provide information, through appropriate signage, to the bridge users to use the alternative route and upgrade the alternative route to be able to receive the additional number of vehicles. vii) qualified personnel must be employed for the construction equipment, and personnel must be trained for health and safety issues;
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One of the sobering lessons of the recent Ebola crisis in West Africa was how ill prepared the world was for such a deadly disease. Pandemics pose a serious threat to both global health and economic security, as well as to the ability to end extreme poverty and achieve the sustainable development goals.
... See More + The pandemic emergency financing facility (PEF) is designed to help fill a critical gap in the international aid architecture, as one part of the global solution to strengthen pandemic risk management. The PEF will help fill the financing gap that occurs after the initial outbreak occurs and before large-scale humanitarian relief assistance can be mobilized. Over the longer term, it is expected that the PEF will play a key role in developing a market for pandemic risk insurance - a novel risk area. The paper is organized as follows: section one gives introduction. Section two provides the background and context for the PEF, outlining the importance of preparedness and response. Section three focuses on the design of the PEF. Section four outlines the governance and operationalization of the PEF. Section five contains issues related to risks and risk mitigation. The paper concludes in section six.
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