Pandemic Preparedness Financing   [open pdf - 2MB]

From the Executive Summary: "Few natural hazards threaten more loss of life, economic disruption, and social disorder than large-scale disease outbreaks. [...] The high death count and social disruption are not the only costs associated with pandemics; the financial and economic damages are also devastating. [...] . By contrast, upgrading countries' preparedness is relatively inexpensive and affordable [...]. Besides its cost effectiveness, investing in pandemic preparedness contributes to poverty alleviation, especially because infectious diseases tend to [affect] poor people disproportionately more than others. To succeed will require a multipronged effort to persuade policy makers and communities to take measures of the political economy, cultural environment, and embrace a 'One Health' approach which recognizes human health as connected to that of animal health and the environment requiring multisectoral engagement when mobilizing and allocating resources."