In a statement, the World Bank announced that it has approved “a $100 million grant from the International Development Association (IDA) and another $15 million grant from the Global Financing Facility (GFF) to support Mozambique’s efforts to expand its current covid-19 vaccination campaign.”
The funds will be used to purchase, administer and distribute covid-19 vaccines, but also to strengthen the preparedness and capacity of the National Health System, as well as to ensure continuity of essential health services, “especially for women, children and adolescents,” the World Bank explains.
“This operation will enable the purchase of approximately seven million doses of covid-19 vaccines, the largest single contribution to date to vaccination efforts in Mozambique. This will ensure coverage of approximately 20 percent of the eligible population,” Miguel Angel San Joaquin Polo, senior health economist and leader of the operation’s task team, says in the note.
“Other areas of support under this operation include communication campaigns to generate trust, reduce hesitancy to vaccines, and improve access to reliable information,” says, for her part, Courtney Price Ivins, health specialist, and co-leader of the team on the project, who adds, “We will also support accountability mechanisms and surveillance systems to track vaccines to their distribution points.”
Quoted in the note, Idah Z. Pswarayi-Riddihough, World Bank director for Mozambique, Madagascar, Comoros, Mauritius and Seychelles, says “the social and economic hardships faced by millions of Mozambicans due to the pandemic are simply too great.”
“I call on all those eligible for the vaccine to take it whenever it is available,” she further stresses.
For Pswarayi-Riddihough, “considering the current shortage of supply in the market, this [World Bank] operation will help the country gain access to vaccines in close interaction with international institutions such as the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust, Covax [consortium for vaccination in poorer countries], among others.”
The project will fund the procurement of covid-19 vaccines and supplies needed for vaccine delivery and distribution, including diluents, syringes, and other medical supplies, the statement said.
In addition, it will support vaccine logistics, including cold chain supplies, storage and transport, as well as the training of community health workers in the implementation of the vaccination campaign against the disease, while promoting demand for and access to essential health services. It will also support key institutions in Mozambique’s vaccination system.
This operation is in line with the country’s priorities as outlined in the National Plan for Preparedness and Response to covid-19 prepared by the government, as well as in the National Vaccination Plan against covid-19, and complements other World Bank support for the pandemic response in Mozambique, the statement said.
The World Bank, one of the largest sources of funding for developing countries, is taking “broad and rapid action to help developing countries respond to the health, social and economic impacts of covid-19,” the statement said.
This “includes $12 billion [about €9.8 billion]” to help low- and middle-income countries purchase and distribute covid-19 vaccines, tests and treatments and strengthen immunization systems.
