At the 2016 May G7 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in Sendai Japan, World Bank launched a new $500 million insurance financial product for fast disbursements of funding to areas hit by pandemic. It’s called the Pandemic Emergency Financing (PEF) Facility.
What is PEF for ?
PEF aims to cut down the lengthy process of disjointed efforts from charities to gather funds, approve receiving end of the relief effort group, passing the funds and coordinating needed resources and expertise to the administrators on site of the outbreak.
Why do we need to address Pandemic Risk in this manner ?
To have a sense of how chaotic the funding process could be, I suggest watching a beautiful movie “Beyond Borders” by Angelina Jolie.
As in the opening scene, dancing in beautiful Oscar de la Renta gowns in charity balls is not unfamiliar to us Tai Tai. We often receive briefing updates during the gala dinners on what have been achieved with the donation money. Yet natural disasters and pandemics can strike humanity fast and afar.
No matter how many successful CEOs or industrialists are invited to the charity events, it is definitely not like a corporate annual Disaster Recovery drill that we have planned, prepared, and practiced countless times. Coordinating a fast fund disbursement to source all necessary medicines in bulk and with all trade permits issued in time and arranging logistics to transfer them to outbreak sites. The challenge goes on and on for different types of pandemics.
Watching the movie, you cannot help but understand her passion in giving up her life in England to help relief groups.
Yet how many of us are brave enough to give up everything to travel to the deserts, the jungles, or the mine-fields?
If we cannot personally be there to oversee the relief efforts, there is a need of pooling wisdom and capabilities to build a system ready to be triggered when pandemic hits in high-risk countries which are usually more corrupt with lack of transparency, and, accountability.
there is a need of pooling wisdom and capabilities to build a system ready to be triggered when pandemic hits in high-risk countries which are usually more corrupt with lack of transparency, and, accountability.
Why do we care about some far away event which might not even happen?
With recent Brexit event, Asian elites now realize how we are strongly impacted from events afar which may not have direct business impact to us. IPO costs for many companies in Asia are suddenly higher or delayed (and still higher) due to Brexit.
Pandemics pose some of the biggest threats in the world to peoples’ lives and to economies…..Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank
Why do we care at such bad timing to the economy ?
For quite a while, I have been hearing from various luxury retailers that there is simply no demand. Occasional big-ticket jewellery items purchased by tourists cannot sustain the brand’s day-to-day high rental and relatively high salary costs for expensive cities such as Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. So, maybe now is the moment for us Tai Tai to be more selective on how and what to spend our resources on. And it is the moment for us to start to spare some time to think about the world outside of us; to start equip ourselves.
What are the questions worth our time to work on ?
Besides the next hottest color of Birkin and Kelly bags, how high should the waistline and hemline shall be?
There is something else in the world ready for us to explore.
And when we are ready, to build.
for ourselves, and, our children.
I have been the best example of boutique VIP Tai Tai. Selecting which boutique worth my interest to visit that afternoon as VIP. Sipping tea and champagne, taking the latest design of fancy cakes and macaroons while flipping through catalogs of the next season and viewing items “hidden” from the public eye.
For a long time, while sipping tea and forking high-calorie mocha cakes in the freezing cold VIP room in the hot Asia, I asked myself, what is beauty ? The “me” dress inside all this vanity, or the me, whatever I’m in.
A Note on role-model Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie was deeply touched by the third world situation while filming this movie and subsequent filming of Tomb Raider in South East Asia. She started her activist role with UNICEF and Doctors without Borders.
Photo of Angelina receiving the honorary damehood from Queen’s Elizabeth II, wearing light grey skirt suit from Ralph &Russo’s spring 2014 collection.
Look at how beautiful she is now that she found her purpose in life, with the support of her husband and children.
Not that we all want to have high-profile recognition like what she does for her humanitarian work. It is sure delightful to see a lady can be a symbol of both beauty and compassion.
— Casling
