The World Bank approved today a $100 million loan to the Republic of Turkey for an Emergency COVID-19 Health Operation to support the actions Turkey is taking to respond to the health impact of COVID-19 pandemic. The project is part of the World Bank's $14 billion global Fast Track Facility announced on April 2nd.
"The funding will strengthen Turkey's capacity to avert the potentially high health and human cost of the COVID-19 pandemic by reinforcing mitigation and disease management," says Auguste Tano Kouame, World Bank Country Director for Turkey. "With the actions supported by this project we hope to contribute to saving lives".
The project will be implemented by the Ministry of Health and consists of two components to support the government to curb the spread of COVID-19 pandemic and strengthen the overall health system to detect and treat cases.
Component 1- Emergency COVID-19 Response (US$98 million) will help:
- Strengthen testing and surveillance systems and procurement of front-line equipment to address the immediate health system needs for medical equipment, supplies and training to diagnose and triage cases affected by the COVID-19 emergency;
- Support disease management and treatment through financing medical equipment and supplies required for diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 patients in intensive care;
- Enhance Public Health Awareness and behavioral change, which will expand community engagement and outreach activities to increase the commitment of the government, private sector, and civil society, to build knowledge, confidence and trust, to propagate behavior change, and to ensure that the vulnerable are able to access services and support.
Upgrade pandemic surveillance and response plans which will finance an assessment, knowledge-exchange and capacity-building for enhancing the national pandemic preparedness and response plan to address potential cyclical future phases associated with COVID-19 or other pandemics.
Component 2- Project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation (US$2 million) will support the and human administrative resources needed to implement the Project and monitor and evaluate progress.
"Given the nature of the disease, the population at large will benefit from this project" said Ahmet Levent Yener, the Task Leader of the project. "The number of beneficiaries is expected to be around 20 million people including, people infected with COVID-19, at-risk populations, particularly the elderly and people with chronic conditions, migrant families, medical and emergency personnel, medical and testing facilities, and public health agencies engaged in the response in Turkey".
The project is funded through an Investment Project Financing (IPF) with a 10.5-year repayment period, including a 5-year grace period.
The World Bank Group, one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries, is taking broad, fast action to help developing countries strengthen their pandemic response. We are increasing disease surveillance, improving public health interventions, and helping the private sector continue to operate and sustain jobs. Over the next 15 months, we will be deploying up to $160 billion in financial support to help countries protect the poor and vulnerable, support businesses, and bolster economic recovery, including $50 billion of new IDA resources in grants or highly concessional terms.
