¶ COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund
.png)
The COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund (SRF) was an early initiative to fund the World Health Organization's response to the declared COVID-19 pandemic, including to “suppress transmission, reduce exposure, counter misinformation, protect the vulnerable, reduce mortality and morbidity and accelerate equitable access to new COVID-19 tools.”[1]
Leadership for the fund was supported by the WHO Foundation, the United Nations Foundation and the Swiss Philanthropy Foundation, and contributed to by many partners.
¶ History
In early 2020, the World Health Organization contacted the United Nations Foundation to “help build momentum and support for its role in leading and coordinating global efforts to prevent, detect, and respond.” Just over two weeks later, the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund was launched.[2]
In March 2021, the United Nations Foundation transferred control of the fund over to the newly-created WHO Foundation.[2:1]
As of August 2021, the fund had raised $254,133,173 from over 673,083 donors. Allocations were decided by the WHO in line with its COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan.[3]
¶ Donors
The SRF was supported by the following organizations:[4][5][6][7]
- Accenture
- Alexion Pharmaceuticals
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- American Express
- Analog Devices
- Apifarma
- Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM)
- Baxter International
- Bloomberg Philanthropies
- BP
- Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC)
- Cargill
- Caterpillar
- China Population Welfare Foundation
- Cisco
- Citi
- Clara Lionel Foundation
- Daiichi-Sankyo
- Danaher
- Dow
- eBay
- Eisai
- Essity
- Flu Lab
- Ford Foundation
- Gaden Phodrang Foundation of the Dalai Lama
- General Electric (GE)
- GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)
- Global Citizen
- Google.org
- Hewlett-Packard (HP)
- HSBC
- IBM
- International League of Dermatological Societies (ILDS)
- Intuit
- Japan Center for International Exchange
- Johnson & Johnson
- JPMorgan Chase
- KBF Canada
- Kemira
- Medtronic
- Merck
- Micron
- Microsoft
- Morgan Stanley
- Nasdaq
- National Basketball Association (NBA)
- Nestlé
- Nike
- PepsiCo
- Pfizer
- Qualcomm
- Rockefeller Brothers Fund
- Royal Bank of Canada (RBC)
- SAP
- Sapienship
- Snapchat
- Sonae
- Sony
- Spotify
- Starbucks
- State Street
- Synaptics
- Tencent Foundation
- Terumo
- TikTok
- TriumphFX
- UNICEF
- United Nations Foundation (UNF)
- Verizon
- Viacom CBS
- Virgin Pulse
- Vodafone
- Walmart
- Warner Music Group (WMG)
- Wayfair
- West Pharmaceutical Services
- Western Union
- WikiHow
- Zoom
¶ Recipients
The primary recipient of the fund's donations was the World Health Organization, which later expanded to include the African Union, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the Big 6 Youth Organizations, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UNICEF, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), World Food Programme (WFP), and other partners.
Money from the fund was also given to the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-Accelerator).[8]
¶ External links
COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for WHO. (2021, August 22). WHO Foundation. https://web.archive.org/web/20210822142645/https://covid19responsefund.org/ ↩︎
The COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. United Nations Foundation. Retrieved July 4, 2023, from https://web.archive.org/web/20230704190217/https://unfoundation.org/covid-19-solidarity-response-fund/ ↩︎ ↩︎
COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SPRP 2021). (2021, February 24). World Health Organization. http://archive.today/2021.09.05-153710/https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-WHE-2021.02 ↩︎
Supporters of the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for WHO. (2021, August 20). WHO Foundation. https://archive.ph/Dhttp://archive.today/2021.08.20-003602/https://covid19responsefund.org/en/supporters/Qb30 ↩︎
Supporters of the Fund. COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for WHO. Retrieved August 18, 2022, from https://web.archive.org/web/20220818025234/https://covid19responsefund.org/en/supporters/ ↩︎
Bloomberg Philanthropies Partners with Global Citizen to Support the One World: Together At Home initiative, Commits $8 Million to World Health Organization (WHO) Solidarity Response Fund. (2020, April 18). Bloomberg Philanthropies. http://archive.today/2022.08.18-061444/https://www.bloomberg.org/press/bloomberg-philanthropies-partners-with-global-citizen-to-support-the-one-world-together-at-home-initiative-commits-8-million-to-world-health-organization-who-solidarity-response-fund/ ↩︎
Impact Report 1 July – 31 December 2021. COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. Retrieved August 17, 2022, from https://web.archive.org/web/20220818031952/https://covid19responsefund.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/SRF-Impact-Report_July_December_2022_Q3Q4.pdf ↩︎
Access to COVID-19 tools funding commitment tracker. (2022, April 1). World Health Organization. https://web.archive.org/web/20220407020319/https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/access-to-covid-19-tools-tracker ↩︎