The World Bank’s “pandemic bonds” will pay out $132.5m to some of the poorest nations affected by coronavirus, the Washington-based institution has confirmed, although critics question whether the payout is too late to be effective.
After long-running concerns about whether triggers for the bonds were too stringent to provide timely funds to countries in need, it was determined on Friday that the final criterion required to activate payment of the bonds — an exponential growth rate in coronavirus infections in countries poor enough to be eligible for funds — had been met.
“This is very late, and it is not the prompt predictable ‘surge’ payment that was promised to the World Bank’s board when the scheme was approved,” said Olga Jonas, a senior fellow at Harvard’s Global Health Institute, who worked at the World Bank for 33 years.