THE WORLD BANK'S RESPONSE TO COVID-19

In October 2020, we published the paper The World Bank’s Response to COVID-19. In it, Susan Engel, Nadeen Madkour and Owain Williams outline how the World Bank’s approach to health care in low-income countries has contributed to weak health systems, underprepared to grapple with the current pandemic.

Countries such as Indonesia and Sri Lanka, for example, are spending more on debt repayments than on healthcare, highlighting the unjust nature of the issue. 

The paper makes several recommendations, including: 

(1) a call for an end to IFC (the World Bank’s private lending arm) investment in private health care; 

(2) detailed monitoring and surveillance of new World Bank loans made to the health care sector; 

(3) a broader and more robust policy response to sovereign debt in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis