Properly funded, it will provide laboratory materials for testing, supplies to protect health workers and medical equipment to treat the sick. It will bring water and sanitation to places facing shortages, and will help humanitarian workers and supplies get to where they are needed most to support the COVID-19 response.
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus joined UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for the plan’s virtual launch, together with UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock and UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore.
Writing in the Washington Post, the WHO Director-General and UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs co-authored a piece calling on countries to fund the plan while sustaining support for existing humanitarian and refugee response plans.
