RIYADH — Saudi Arabia, which holds the G20 presidency, has pledged $500 million to relevant international organizations to support global efforts in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. The financial aid will support emergency and preparedness response, developing and deploying new diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines, fulfilling unmet needs for international surveillance and coordination and ensuring sufficient supplies of protective equipment for health workers.

The contribution by the Kingdom comes in response to the commitment made during the Extraordinary G20 Leaders’ Summit, which was called and chaired by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman Bin last month. In the summit G20 leaders agreed to mobilize the needed funds for international organizations response programs.

Saudi Arabia will allocate $150 million to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation (CEPI), $150 million to The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI) and $200 million to other international and regional health organizations and programs.

Recognizing the importance of global solidarity and cooperation in combating this pandemic, the Kingdom has called on all countries, non-governmental organizations, philanthropies, and the private sector to take part in the global efforts to close the required financing gap in order to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, which is estimated to be over $8 billion, according to the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB).

The G20 continues to take action, under the Saudi Presidency, and will act collectively, immediately and boldly to combat the global effects of this pandemic and to implement priority actions across all G20 workstreams.