Mozambique: World Bank approves $201M to strengthen health system

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Mozambique: World Bank approves $201M to strengthen health system

5:14 CAT | 27 Jun 2025

File photo: Wikimedia Commons

– The World Bank has approved $201 million (€171 million) in financing to strengthen Mozambique’s health system response to natural disasters and climate change, the organisation announced on Friday.

“The World Bank has approved the Resilience Project to Protect Lives and Strengthen Emergency Response in Mozambique,” reads the statement sent to Lusa, which stressed that “the project also supports the development of climate-adapted infrastructure and emergency preparedness plans, recognising the growing health risks due to climate change.”

Part of a regional programme to strengthen health security across Eastern and Southern Africa, the World Bank project aims to “strengthen the capacity of health professionals, especially in high-risk areas, by improving recruitment, training and retention systems; improve pharmaceutical supply chains by supporting the regulatory agency to make procurement processes more transparent and faster, and reducing and standardising the prices of health products to ensure access to medicines, especially during crises”.

Another objective is to invest in “disease surveillance and laboratory capacity to improve early warning and response systems to detect and respond quickly to health emergencies such as cholera outbreaks or heat waves”.

The World Bank’s support also aims to develop climate-resilient infrastructure and emergency preparedness plans, recognising the growing health risks posed by climate change.

“Mozambique is already feeling the health impacts of shocks and emergencies,” said Luc Lecuit, acting director of the World Bank’s Mozambique Division, adding: “The programme supports the government’s efforts to strengthen the delivery of essential health services by investing in preparedness and resilience, ensuring that services remain operational during floods, storms and epidemics.’

The International Development Association (IDA), a World Bank agency, funds the programme, and the developers will implement it over a five-year period.

In the statement, the World Bank also said that “along with other development partners, it is increasing support to the health sector in Mozambique through a $63.7 million (€45.3 million) reinforcement to the ongoing District and Community Health Services Revitalisation Project,” concluding that this funding “will expand the project’s impact in Mozambique’s 63 most vulnerable districts.”

Source: Lusa