DAWN May-June Edition

Page 46

Pandemic-Health

Virus Variants Stoke Need for Vaccine Cash, Rockefeller Says By Jason Gale

A PLAN TO END the Covid-19 pandemic by speeding up immunizations could be financed through a record asset allocation via the International Monetary Fund, according to the Rockefeller Foundation (www.bloomberg.com/profile/ company/905192Z:US). The IMF should approve and swiftly distribute $650 billion in additional reserve assets to help developing economies vaccinate as much as 70% of their populations by the end of next year, the Rockefeller Foundation said in a report recently. Delaying immunizations raises the likelihood new variants will emerge that could cause “rolling outbreaks resulting in further economic shutdowns,” according to the 22-page report, whose contributors include former U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Jeffrey Sachs, a professor of economics at Columbia University in New York. “Vaccine-resistant variants that mutate in one under-vaccinated country can quickly spread to one that’s been immunized,” said Rajiv J. Shah, president of the New York-based foundation, in the report. “Current vaccination plans and the funding behind them are simply not enough to protect us all.” The report details ways to leverage a large issuance and reallocation of IMF special drawing rights -- an international reserve asset created in 1969 -- which can be exchanged for freely-usable currencies. The report calls for wealthier countries to commit to voluntarily reallocating at least $100 billion of 46

May-June 2021

their unneeded drawing rights to provide further support to the developing world.

‘Liquidity Boost’ If approved, the new allocation would add a substantial, direct liquidity boost to countries without swelling debt burdens, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said last month. A formal proposal is slated to be presented to the IMF board in June. Financing from the World Bank, the IMF and regional development banks, including mobilized private capital, needs to increase by $400 billion to $500 billion a year as the world recovers from the pandemic to help assure a broad and sustainable rebound in emerging and developing countries, according to the report. If the virus is allowed to spread in countries with low vaccination rates, it’s likelier to mutate and generate variants that could bypass protection from inoculations, the report said. As a result, even countries with high vaccination rates would be vulnerable. The world is 4-to-6 times more likely to get a new variant from an under-vaccinated country that isn’t a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development than from a fully protected OECD country, it said. For every $1 spent on supplying poorer countries with vaccines, high-income countries would get back about $4.80, Rand Corp. said in a research DAWN

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Articles inside

Chef Deborah VanTrece is Showing us Soul Food’s Global Range

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First-Ever Black Virtual Art Exhibit Opens 2021 Show With More Than 1,200 Pieces

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Overseas Spectators will be Banned from Tokyo Olympics due to COVID-19 Risks

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BEWARE!! - How Online Scammers Fooled one of Africa’s Biggest Fintech Startups

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The BAL: Zamalek Wins Inaugural Basketball Africa League

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How an Extraordinary Women-Only Village is Inspiring Land Equality in Rural Kenya

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Simone Biles Maintains Gold Standard

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Summers Could Last Half the Year by the End of this Century

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Zoom Boosts its App Ecosystem with $100M Venture Fund

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Ghana to Sell Sustainable Bonds for Up to $1 Billion by July

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Ethiopia Finally Opens up Telecoms Market

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Airtel Africa’s Mobile Money Business Gains $100m Investment from Mastercard

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Founder of $16 Billion Ariel Investments Created a School to Teach Kids Financial Literacy Through Stocks

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World’s First Wildlife Bond to Track Rhino Numbers in Africa

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How to Attract Angel Investors in 2021

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$2 Million Fund to Invest in Up-and-Coming Creators

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Kuda Raises $25M more led by Valar to Become the Neobank for ‘Every African on the Planet’

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African Stock Exchange/Bourse

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NBA Stars Like Kevin Durant and Kyle Lowry are Increasingly Pouring Money into Startups for the Thrill of Investing and a Chance to Break Down Barriers for People of Color

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Africa is too Important for Americans to Ignore

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Solidarity

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Feared and Revered: Patrice Talon, Benin's 'King of Cotton'

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Ivory Coast’s President Ouattara Names Patrick Achi as Prime Minister

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World Bank Financing for COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Reaches $2 Billion

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From Better Feed to a Better Way of Farming

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Epic COVAX COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Continues

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How Africa could use Solar Tech to Distribute Covid-19 Vaccines

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Virus Variants Stoke Need for Vaccine Cash Rockefeller Says

2min
pages 46-47

Africa May Not Reach Herd Immunity Against Covid-19 Until 2023

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The Global Startup Awards Africa Seeks out the Best Technology Innovators from Around Africa

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Germany Will Pay Namibia $1.3bn as it Formally Recognizes Colonial-era Genocide

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Mastercard and Island Pay Launch World’s First Central Bank Digital Currency-Linked Card

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Konza Technopolis: Welcome to Silicon Savannah

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‘We Cannot Drink Oil’: Campaigners Condemn East African Pipeline Project

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Uganda, Tanzania, Oil Firms Sign Accords to Build $3.5-Billion Pipeline

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Africa Tries Free Trade

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AfCFTA and UNDP Announce New Partnership Towards Inclusive Growth in Africa

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