The World Bank has announced a $4 billion financing Covid-19 vaccines acquisition support for 51 low and middle-income countries including Ghana.
The $4 billion financing support provided on concessional terms and on grant, forms part of the Bretton Wood Institution’s commitment to help low and middle-income countries acquire and distribute vaccines and strengthen their health systems.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Bank Group has approved more than $150 billion to fight the health, economic, and social impacts of the pandemic.
Since April 2020, the Bank has scaled up its financing by over 50 percent, helping more than 100 countries meet emergency health needs, strengthen pandemic preparedness, while also supporting countries as they protect the poor and jobs.
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The World Bank is helping developing countries in every region of the world with vaccine purchase and rollout. Significant challenges still remain regarding vaccine deployment and hesitancy. We are taking action on all fronts to tackle these challenges, working in solidarity with international and regional partners to expedite doses to as many people as possible and to enhance disease surveillance, preparedness, and response,” stated Axel van Trotsenburg, World Bank Managing Director of Operations.
The Bank’s vaccine finance package is designed to be flexible. It can be used by countries to acquire doses through COVAX, the Africa Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT) or other sources.
It also finances vaccine deployment and health system strengthening, such as vaccine cold-chains, training health workers, data and information systems, and communications and outreach campaigns to key stakeholders which are crucial to ensure vaccination acceptance.
Meanwhile, the World Bank has partnered with the African Union and the Africa Center for Disease Control to support AVATT initiative with resources to allow countries to purchase and deploy vaccines for up to 400 million people across Africa.
The Bank is also convening a task force with the IMF, WHO, WTO, and other partners to track, coordinate, and advance delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to developing countries.
