Countries Put Their Own Money on Pandemic Preparedness, and Pledge More to the Pandemic Fund
At a UNGA sideline event in New York, the Pandemic Fund, Armenia, and Rwanda argued that investing in prevention protects economies as well as lives, and commitments to further fund the Pandemic Fund followed.
On the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly, the Pandemic Fund joined the Governments of Armenia and Rwanda to host a high-level discussion on how national leadership and domestic investment are strengthening pandemic preparedness. The event, held at Studio Gather in Rockefeller Center, brought together heads of government, health and finance ministers, and leaders of international organizations. It was livestreamed to a global audience.
Among the commitments made at the event was a pledge to invest more in the Pandemic Fund, with the money directed toward prevention. [Add: who pledged, the amount, and what it will be used for.] The pledge supports the event's central argument that preparedness is cheaper than response, and that catalytic financing helps countries close gaps they are already working to address with their own resources.
The timing was deliberate. The conversation came ahead of the UN High-Level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response. Organizers framed it around a simple premise: countries are investing their own resources in closing preparedness gaps, and financing from the Pandemic Fund and partners helps those investments go further. A second argument ran alongside it, that preparedness spending protects economies as well as public health.
Welcome remarks came from Priya Basu, Executive Head of the Pandemic Fund. Keynotes followed from Rwanda's Prime Minister Dr. Justin Nsengiyumva, Armenia's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Paruyr Hovhannisyan, and Paschal Donohoe, Managing Director and Chief Knowledge Officer of the World Bank Group. Dr. Mekdes Daba, Ethiopia's Minister of Health and Co-Chair of the Pandemic Fund Board, set the scene for the first panel.
That panel, "Commitments in Action," examined how preparedness strengthens health systems and advances universal health coverage. It featured health ministers Frank Anthony (Guyana), Austin Demby (Sierra Leone), and Anahit Avanesyan (Armenia), along with Misrak Makonnen of Amref Health Africa.
After a scene-setting address by Dr. Chatib Basri, Indonesia's former finance minister, a second panel turned to "Sustaining Global Leadership and Financing for Global Health Security." It brought together Indonesia's Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin, Africa CDC Director General Jean Kaseya, and CARPHA Executive Director Dr. Lisa Indar. Andrew Sollinger, CEO and Publisher of Foreign Policy, the event's official media partner, moderated both panels and delivered closing remarks.
The speaker list reflects the argument. It paired health ministers, who see preparedness as a system-strengthening investment, with finance voices who treat it as economic risk management. It also spanned several regions: East and West Africa, the Caribbean, the South Caucasus, and Southeast Asia. Regional bodies like Africa CDC and CARPHA sat alongside the World Bank, which signals that financing is increasingly a shared responsibility rather than a donor-recipient exchange.
The central question is whether political and financial commitments turn into measurable results, which is how organizers described their goal. With the High-Level Meeting approaching, the new pledges to the Pandemic Fund will be an early test of whether momentum from the sidelines carries into the main negotiations.
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