TOKYO: Finance and health ministers from the Group of Seven major powers agreed in an online meeting Saturday to develop a system to quickly provide funds in the event of a global pandemic.

The move is based on lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, including the delay in funding the distribution of vaccines to developing countries.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed some limitations of the existing functions,” the G-7 ministers said in a joint statement released after the meeting. They noted that financing during the pandemic was “too late” or “too limited.”

The ministers proposed the introduction of a “surge” financing framework to enable the flexible use of funds in the event of an emergency.

The G-7 countries will work with their Group of 20 colleagues to hammer out the details of the proposed framework by the time when G-20 finance and health ministers meet in India in August.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, developed countries rushed to secure vaccines, while vaccine supply to developing nations was slow.

The World Health Organization and others set up the COVAX framework to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines, but a lack of funding remained an issue.

Saturday’s online meeting was held while the G-7 finance ministers were in the central Japan city of Niigata and the health ministers were in the southwestern city of Nagasaki for separate meetings.

JIJI Press