The Government of Sudan and the World Bank signed Tuesoday a grant agreement of USD100 million to boost the country’s COVID-19 response and expand vaccination coverage in the country. This is the first grant from the International Development Association (IDA) following the arrears clearance on March 25, 2021 and nearly 30 years of disengagement with IDA. This comes in addition to the USD21.9 million grant provided in September 2020 with donor support aimed at mitigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are extremely delighted to partner with the World Bank Group (WBG) in this very important project. We are confident that with this additional financing in place, we will be able to boost our COVID-19 response including expanding vaccination coverage. Nonetheless, this will feed into pandemic preparedness aspects as well, as we plan to address some of the most outstanding system gaps. We value our strategic partnership with the WBG as we look forward to further strengthen and revive our health system.” said Omer Elnagieb, Sudan’s Minister of Health.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Government of Sudan has been working hard to improve prevention activities, rapid detection, and deploy COVID-19 vaccination in the country. However, the pandemic continues to severely impact the country’s economy and people. The additional financing will scale up activities implemented under the first phase of the Sudan COVID-19 Emergency Response Project and accelerate vaccine deployment in the country.
“We are very happy to boost our support in this area. By providing vaccines, this project will especially be beneficial to preventing COVID-19 related deaths and reducing transmission among the population. It will also help Sudan to fast-track economic and social recovery,” said Ousmane Dione, World Bank Country Director for Eritrea, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Sudan.
The Additional Financing will enable Sudan to obtain COVID-19 vaccines from a variety of suppliers to attain its target of vaccinating 25 percent of its population in a way that guarantees value-for-money. The project will also allow for an equitable and effective distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in line with Sudan’s National Vaccine Deployment Plan.
“This project will provide a critical boost to Sudan’s vaccination efforts across the country and will allow more than 10 million people to receive Covid-19 vaccines. It will also provide training to health workers to support vaccine deployment across the country,” said Milena Stefanova, World Bank Country Manager for Sudan.
