The Islamic Development Bank will soon introduce a $2 billion coronavirus response package for member states to cope with the impact of the pandemic, media reports said. The bank’s 3Rs package which stands for ‘Respond, Restore and Restart’ will prepare the countries for the pandemic’s current and residual impact in the future.
This package is in cooperation with the G20 Global Initiative which was developed to tackle global challenges. The bank will partner with various organisations from around the world including the World Health Organisation and other UN Agencies to step up its coronavirus response efforts during the pandemic.
The Islamic Development Bank President Bandar Hajjar said that the bank will deliver “The 3 Rs package” through a unified country platform, in line with G20 principles. This will ensure coherence and coordination among key stakeholders. To that effect, IsDB will launch a joint global platform in May 2020 to track delivery among all the country platforms and to mobilise resources. We will make this available to partner MDBs.”
Under the package, the first R points to delivering immediate action through South-South and North-South reverse linkage operations. The second R is focused on efforts in the medium term through financing for trade and SMEs to sustain in the core strategic value chain, while the third R is built on the long-term action to create more resilience across economies.