Preparing for an Unknown World

• Author: Era Dabla-Norris, Vitor Gaspar, and Kalpana Kochhar
• Position: ERA DABLA-NORRIS is a division chief in the IMF's Asia-Pacific Department; VITOR GASPAR is director of the IMF's Fiscal Affairs Department; and KALPANA KOCHHAR is director of the IMF's Human Resources Department.
• Pages: 24-25

ART: ISTOCK / ANADMIST

We must have cooperation, collaboration; utilize the

machinery, the instrum entalities, that have been set up

to provide succor to those who are h ungry and ill; to

set up, establish instrumentalities t hat will stabilize or

tend toward stabilization of econ omies of our world.

— Fred Vinson (US delegate at Bretton Woods,

future Supreme Court chief justic e)

Commission I, 1944

Had I been present at the Creation , I would have given

some useful hints for the bett er ordering of the universe.

—Alfonso X, K ing of Spain, 1252–1284

O

nce COVID-19 abates, we will be

reminded of how everything changed,

of the world that was. But the unfolding

crisis contains profound lessons for the

future. When internationa l delegates met at Bretton

Woods in July 1944 to devise a postwar world, the

war was stil l far from over. Yet, recallin g the missed

opportunities that had followed t he previous world

war, they understood that the focu s had to shift

from ending the war to establishing new founda-

tions. Today’s global economy faces very dierent

challenges, but importa nt parallels remain. Urgency

and speed of action are as cruci al as the need to

mobilize resources at rea l scale.

ere are large unk nowns about how long it will

take to develop and deploy eective vacc ines, the

duration and likelihood of repeat outbrea ks and

lockdowns, and the eventua l economic ramica-

tions. Even so, it is possible to identify some xed

points for an international post– COVID-19 order.

First, international collaboration on mount-

ing eect ive public heal th responses that rely

on solid scie ntic cons ensus on d isease cau ses

and mitigatio n is vital. Triumphs of interna-

tional cooperation prior to this pandem ic centered

on public-private health initiatives that counted

transparency, accountability, and broad engage-

ment as hallmark s. Examples include the Global

Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, t he

Global Allia nce for Vaccines and Immunization,

and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and

Innovation. Governments would do well to reect

on what went wrong this time and tr y to understand

how funding for projects in the public interest ca n

build on existing initiatives. is could help drive

research and development of vaccines a nd diagnos-

tics for future dise ase outbreaks.

Public health responses require a u niversal focus

on pandemics. Emerging market and developing

economies, many of which are grossly i ll-equipped

to combat the current health and economic shock,

are increasingly on the f ront lines of the spread of

We must collectively work toward resolving the problems exposed by the crisis

Era Dabla-Norris, Vitor Gaspar, and Kalpana Kochhar

24 FINANCE & DEVELOPMENT | June 2020

UNKNOWN

WORLD

PREPARING FOR AN