The Pandemic Fund

Recent disease outbreaks—from mpox, Marburg and Ebola in parts of Africa; dengue across Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific; Nipah virus in South Asia; and increased detection of avian influenza globally—underscore that the risk of a future pandemic is real and increasing. In today’s global health and financing landscape, the Governing Board of the Pandemic Fund recognizes that pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response (PPR) must remain a priority for international cooperation as we work to strengthen national and regional capacity and promote self-reliance.

Established in 2022 by sovereign and non-sovereign contributors under Indonesia’s G20 presidency, the Pandemic Fund is the only global financing facility with pandemic PPR as its primary mandate. It aims to address longstanding gaps in readiness and catalyze investments in country and regional capacities to enhance collective health security.

After three years, the Pandemic Fund is already demonstrating impact and actively driving partnerships across animal and human health. The Pandemic Fund’s US$11.5 billion portfolio reflects a catalytic model that has leveraged US$1.4 billion in grants to mobilize an additional US$6.1 billion in international co-financing and US$4.0 billion in domestic co-investment from countries. These investments are translating into expanded capacity on the ground. The recently published Progress Report of the Pandemic Fund highlights achievements from the first two funding rounds:

• Over 12,000 facilities strengthened at all levels of the health system, including at points of entry, labs and surveillance facilities, through investments in technology upgrades, improved data accuracy, and integration of lab results to better predict and respond to health threats;
   
• More than 140,000 health workers—including nearly 90,000 community health workers—trained to recognize outbreak early warning signs, more than 2,400 field epidemiologists trained to investigate outbreaks, and more than 2,300 veterinarians trained in zoonotic disease management; and
   
• Seventy-one percent of projects report improved capacity for rapid animal and human disease detection, reporting, and analysis.

The Pandemic Fund delivers results by deploying its catalytic, collaborative, country-centered model, and by using a disease-agnostic and One Health approach to target systemic vulnerabilities. Progress is driven by strong country ownership, in consultation with civil society, demonstrating that when countries and communities lead their preparedness agendas, they make the necessary investments to drive real change.

The Governing Board is committed to ensuring the Pandemic Fund continues to operate in ways that reinforce health sovereignty, reduce aid dependency, and maximize impact—all essential within the changing resource landscape. As such, the Board has adopted a series of decisions to strengthen the Pandemic Fund’s delivery model and operations. These include introducing a new tool to better evaluate and target resources towards countries most at risk for outbreaks; providing more predictable funding through longer and more flexible application windows, including rolling submissions; streamlining the application process for future funding rounds; and upgrading systems to enhance the tracking of results and impact. The Board is also exploring ways to leverage the Pandemic Fund’s platform to further accelerate country-led integration of existing external funding flows, such as those from multilateral development banks (MDBs).

The global health security context is changing—budgets are tightening, and countries are seeking greater control over the future of their health systems, with external support increasingly aligned to country-led plans. By proactively building resilient health systems during inter-pandemic periods, countries can develop epidemic-ready primary health care, adaptive workforces, and develop more effective regional and cross-border collaboration, enabling them to respond faster, reduce dependency, and protect hard-won development gains.

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