World Bank approves Additional Financing of US$140 million for the Nigerian Health Sector
Polio Eradication and Maternal and Infant Health Projects to get significant resources
Contacts:
In Washington DC :
Rachel Mccolgan-Arnold
Tel. (202) 458 5299
Email rmccolgan@ worldbank.org
WASHINGTONSeptember 30, 2008. The World Bank Board of Executive Directors today approved additional financing, totaling US$140 million in IDA Credits, for two health sector projects in Nigeria.
The first, supplementing the Partnership for Polio Eradication Project, will provide an additional credit of US$50 million for polio eradication, building on an earlier project, approved in April 2003 for US31 million. Polio is an acute viralinfectious diseasespread from person to person, which can infect and debilitate the central nervous system. There is no cure for polio and it can only be prevented through immunization. Polio vaccine, given multiple times, almost always protects a child for life. At present, the presence of the polio virus in Nigeria represents a threat to the regional and global eradication effort as the virus has spread from this area to other countries, most recently to Chad, Benin and Niger. In 2007, Nigeria accounted for 22 percent of the wild polio virus cases globally and 78 percent of the cases across the African continent.
Specifically, the IDA resources will fund around 60 percent of the costs associated with the procurement of Oral Polio Vaccine. The funding will also ensure that the Polio Eradication Initiative continues to contribute to institutional and capacity strengthening in the health sector at all levels of government in Nigeria, and in particular the delivery of immunization services and disease surveillance.
Just two years ago in Nigeria, there were 919 reported cases of polio over a 38 week period. Last year, following an aggressive Polio Eradication program, led by the National Primary Healthy Care Development Agency, there were just 197 cases of wild polio reported for the same time span..
The Task Team Leader, Ramesh Govindaraj, highlighted the multi-donor nature of the project: “The Government of Nigeria has successfully harnessed the resources of a number of donors, including the Center for Disease Control, KfW, Japan and Korea – our funds will help bridge the financing gap that this project might otherwise face in order to meet the objectives of eradicating this disease. The additional financing will also allow a new, more effective method of delivery to be introduced and we are already witnessing the results with this new approach.”
The second project to receive additional financing, the Second Health Systems Development Project, seeks to improve the maternal and child health status in Nigeria, which is amongst the poorest in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The Task Team Leader, Ramesh Govindaraj, underscored the dire human statistics and related them to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): “Infant mortality rates actually worsened between 2000 and 2005 (from 97 to 100 deaths/1000 live births) and child mortality was 201 per 1000 in 2005. The MDG target is 30 deaths/1000 live births in 2015. Maternal mortality rates are equally worrisome and a significant number of lives of both mothers and children could be prevented through interventions at the primary health care level.”
The project’s goals remain unchanged but have been scaled-up to meet the growing demand and commitment among Local Government Authorities and communities to strengthen the delivery of primary health care activities. The project will continue to finance the renovation and equipment of 127 primary health care centers, and numerous other facilities including schools of nursing. Expansion of and access to these facilities has already seen a marked increase in use. In one state, attendance at ante natal clinics grew from 19,000 in 2004 to 31,000 in 2006. Nine thousand health works have benefited from training provided under the project and a further 3000 doctors have had training in Emergency Life Saving Skills (ELSS)
Ramesh Govindaraj summarized the importance of the project to the Nigerian health sector: “We have already seen increased utilization of primary health care facilities—from 4 million in 2003 to 10 million currently. Immunization rates are on track to double and the number of births attended by skilled health personnel has grown five-fold. These are significant changes that can only improve the overall state of the Nigerian people.”
The additional financing includes $9.4 million to strengthen monitoring and evaluation systems and processes at National and Sate levels, the benefits of which will accrue to the Government after the closing of the IDA project. The Government is providing US$30.5 million for a total project cost of US$120.5 million.
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For more information on the World Bank’s work in sub-Saharan Africa visit: http://www.worldbank.org/afr
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