ALBA Humanitarian Fund to face economic challenges posed by COVID-19 pandemic

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On July 3, 2020, the Bank of ALBA approved the creation of the ALBA Humanitarian Fund as a financial tool to strengthen and allocate resources aimed at mitigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the necessary financial support for economic boost. This measure resulted from the decisions made by the leaders of the Bolivarian […]

On July 3, 2020, the Bank of ALBA approved the creation of the ALBA Humanitarian Fund as a financial tool to strengthen and allocate resources aimed at mitigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the necessary financial support for economic boost.

This measure resulted from the decisions made by the leaders of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) on June 10 and the working plan for economic strengthening approved at a meeting held on June 29 by the ALBA Political Council and the ALBA Council of Economic Complementation.

In the context of the COVID-19 sanitary, economic and social crisis, and faced with the politization and subordination to hegemonic powers and traditional financial mechanisms resulting from Bretton Woods, the ALBA-TCP member countries proposed a mechanism to fight and help address the economic needs of the Alliance through the creation of a fund they called ALBA Humanitarian Fund.

The management of the ALBA Humanitarian Fund will rely on the experience gained by the Bank of ALBA in managing funds aimed at development projects. Since its establishment 11 years ago, the Bank of ALBA has conducted fiduciary transactions amounting to more than $ 500 billion and it has relied on the necessary institutional agility to adapt to different scenarios.

In this regard, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said that tis fund will be necessary to assist ALBA countries in emergency situations.

“This mechanism will be activated immediately with early allocations at the service of the people in the event of a catastrophe in order to express solidarity in real time,” stressed Arreaza.

On September 2, 2002, President Hugo Chávez proposed for the first time the creation of an International Humanitarian Fund at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg, South Africa.

“Only thus could we really start reversing the path on which we are leading the world towards disaster. Only thus could we respond to the children talking to us from the abysses of the peoples. Only thus could we realize the dream of justice prevailing all over the world,” said Chávez.

The ALBA Humanitarian Fund was created with the same spirit of justice, social development and solidarity.