Cabo Verde: First African country with World Bank funding for vaccines

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Cabo Verde: First African country with World Bank funding for vaccines

3:36 CAT | 12 Feb 2021

File photo: Lusa

The World Bank has approved additional funding of $5 million to support Cabo Verde in the acquisition of 400,000 Covid-19 vaccines, the first funding of its kind the WB has allocated to an African country.

In a statement on Thursday, the World Bank explained that the funding will be made through the International Development Association (IDA), allowing the government of Cabo Verde to purchase, in addition to vaccines, also personal protective equipment such as masks and medical supplies, to ensure effective implementation of the vaccination campaign.

“This is the first operation funded by the World Bank in Africa to support a country’s immunisation plan for Covid-19 and assist in the purchase and distribution of the vaccine in line with the COVAX initiative, Global Access to Covid-19 Vaccines,” the international financial institution said, which makes loans to developing countries.

This project will also finance the purchase of equipment and transport for a vaccine cold chain and the improvement of health infrastructure to help reopen the country to tourism, a sector that has been at a standstill since March 2020 and previously guaranteed 25% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

In a context of a second wave of the pandemic causing severe impact on lives and economies of Africa, closing schools and businesses, the World Bank plans to strengthen support for countries to purchase and distribute vaccines, tests and treatments, as well as vaccination systems, said Ousmane Diagana, World Bank vice president for West and Central Africa, quoted in the statement.

“Cabo Verde has immense experience with vaccination campaigns and is well prepared to start the implementation of vaccines this month. This is a crucial measure to help secure the future of the Cape Verdean people, to recover jobs and revive the tourism industry, which has been particularly impacted by the pandemic,” said Diagana.

The World Bank recognises that the Cape Verdean economy has been drastically affected by the crisis,” with an economic recession equivalent to 11% of GDP by 2020 due to a 70% drop in tourism demand and with the unemployment rate doubling to around 20%, causing poverty levels to soar in the short term.

“After months of rigorous work and great collaboration, we are very pleased with the approval by the World Bank of this additional funding to help Cabo Verde buy and distribute vaccines against the covid-19 virus,” said Cabo Verde’s deputy prime minister and finance minister, Olavo Correia, also quoted in the statement.

“We are now committed to ensuring that the population is promptly vaccinated so that we can re-establish economic growth in a more resilient and diversified way,” Correia added.

Cabo Verde has an estimated population of 550,000 people and to help prepare the National Vaccination Plan against Covid-19, the institution recalls, a vaccine readiness assessment” was carried out by the government of Cabo Verde with support from the World Bank, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

“The assessment has shown that preparations are well underway, the legal framework and target population identification process are in place, and Cape Verde is now able to make use of the Advanced Market Commitment of the COVAX Initiative (CMA-COVAX) as the main mechanism for vaccine procurement,” the World Bank statement said.

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic in Cabo Verde, the World Bank said it had already approved funding of about $50 million to strengthen health care, social support and the resumption of economic activity.

Source: Lusa