World Bank approves new financing to support vaccination campaign in Togo

TOGO – The World Bank has approved a $29.5 million financing to help Togo ‘proceed to the vaccination of its population against the coronavirus and better tackle public health emergencies.

The funds break down into $25 million from the International Development Agency (IDA) and $4.5 million from the Health Emergency Preparedness & Response multi-donor trust fund.

This should, in effect, enable the West African country to boost the distribution of vaccines and have an appropriate health system that will ensure the success of the ongoing vaccination campaign.

The new financing will also cover the purchase of vaccines, the update of the conservation chain, and the efficient provision of vaccines to the people.

“These additional resources will allow Togo to achieve its objective, which is to vaccinate at least 60% of its population,” said Hawa Wague, Resident Representative for the World Bank in Togo.

She added that the country recorded multiple successes in managing the Covid-19 crisis, as a result of measures taken by the authorities paired with an adequate healthcare and testing system.

In March 2021, Togo started its vaccination campaign against Covid-19. In the coming months, it should receive a batch of vaccines that the US has committed to provide to around a hundred countries.

The country has so far managed to administer 347 thousand vaccines, out of which 76,462 people have been fully immunized, representing 0.9% of the country’s population.

The country, like many other African nations is battling the third wave. So far, the country has recorded 13,631 cases, 126 deaths, 13,308 recoveries from a sample size of 347,152.

World Bank has continually partnered with African countries in the fight against COVID-19.

A little while back, The World Bank and African Union’s COVID-19 Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT) announced a partnership meant to accelerate vaccine deployment to at least 400 million Africans.

Under the AVATT structure, AU member states are allocated vaccines according to the size of their populations through a pooled procurement mechanism.

In addition to assisting in the fight against the pandemic, world bank has also made efforts to strengthens Africa’s health system.

In April this year, World Bank approved a financing of US$54.6 million for the Health System Support Project (KIRA), in Burundi.

“This new financing will continue to strengthen the various health system pillars in Burundi for the well-being of communities, particularly the most vulnerable people”, said Jean Christophe Carret, World Bank Country Director for Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola.

According to Global Health Report by USAID, Burundi’s health system suffers from a lack of adequate infrastructure and human resources to meet urgent community health needs.

In 2004, there were an estimated 5 doctors, 28 nurses and 1 pharmacist per 100,000 people. Total health care expenditures were estimated at 3.7% of GDP.