There is a growing trend as well as increasing public pressure in developing or emerging economies to follow the US and EU-led approaches to dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, without considering local economic settings. This imitation may lead to a worsening of the situation, especially if the pandemic were to last for a longer period of time. This column proposes a framework for a safer policymaking approach, especially for countries with a tighter policy space. Policy responses should be evaluated based on how the resources are generated and spent using a set of pre-defined criteria.