Fuente: © World Bank
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World Bank Bird Flu Aid Seen Ready By Mid-January

/noticias.info/ The World Bank is likely to approve a $300 million to $500 million line of credit to help countries deal with bird flu before a global summit in Beijing on January 17-18, a senior bank official said on Tuesday, reports Reuters.

The proposed financing is currently awaiting a decision by World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz before it goes to the Bank's board of member countries for approval. The funding is seen as pivotal to global efforts to tackle a possible pandemic of the H5N1 avian flu virus, which has infected 130 people in five Asian countries, killing 69 of them.

Jim Adams, the Bank's Vice President for Operations Policy and Country Services, said World Bank teams were already in Turkey, Vietnam, Indonesia and Kyrgyzstan to develop bird flu programs for when the funds are available -- either through the Bank or other development agencies. "They have asked us to come out and develop a program, and normally that would lead to a request for funding, but I don't want to make decisions for them," Adams told the news agency. "We feel we have a template, or menu of items, which we are sitting down with governments and asking them where they need the most help," he added.

Adams said plans for a separate multi-donor trust fund for bird flu were moving forward and discussions on its financing were currently underway with European donors, ahead of a formal pledging session in Beijing. The World Bank has earmarked a $1 billion global war chest for bird flu, including its own credit facility. It has estimated that a flu pandemic lasting a year could cost the global economy up to $800 billion.

The news agency further writes Adams said risks posed by bird flu were "very much on the table now" and the conference in Beijing, a few months after the first summit in Geneva, would reinforce global awareness. "People are very alert to the problem," Adams said. "East Asia was sensitive because they went through SARS and there is recognition of the economic impact, but what we are seeing is a fairly broad recognition that this is a problem that has to be managed," he added.

In Beijing, Adams said agencies at the forefront of bird flu wanted to create a "credible" sense of the risks and challenges that lie ahead. "We don't want to become fear-mongers, but the development challenge is there," he said, adding it was essential that surveillance systems were in place to prevent the virus from spreading quickly. Adams said it was important that a certain amount of the financial help offered to especially poor countries was in the form of grants, so it did not burden their budgets. "We are willing to lend, but we also see the importance of mobilizing a maximum amount of grant funding," he added.

In related news, Xinhua (China) reports that representatives from 16 Asian countries and six international organizations reached consensus at a ministerial conference for Asian cooperation on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) control held in Kunming on Wednesday. The Asian countries vowed to exchange information, develop new vaccines and enhance investment in their joint efforts to control the spreading epidemic of HPAI. Affected countries and regions shall timely notify international organizations and neighboring countries of the outbreak, its evolvement and control measures, said the Kunming Initiative, calling for the establishment of a communication mechanism to share epidemic information among the nations and regions.

Financial inputs, especially investment in animal health, should be increased so as to enhance bio-security in poultry farms and live bird markets. Compensation to poultry farmers who suffer from losses will be considered, and mechanism to provide material assistance for disease control including vaccines should be established, according to the initiative.

Reuters meanwhile notes that ten Southeast Asian leaders are likely to discuss a range of sensitive issues at a summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Monday, from oil prices and trade to air pollution and bird flu. Some issues will be discussed among all the ASEAN leaders while others will be raised either in bilateral talks held on the sidelines of the Kuala Lumpur summit or in wider East Asian talks that immediately follow the ASEAN summit. China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand will attend the East Asian summit while Russia will be an observer. notas_de_prensa_archivo