World Bank supports healthcare restoration

The World Bank approved a grant of $15 million to restore access to essential healthcare services for locals below the poverty line who are affected by the influx of Syrian refugees.

The project comprises three components: The provision of an essential healthcare package to eligible poor beneficiaries, readiness and capacity building of contracted primary healthcare centers and project outreach, management and monitoring.

The first component subsidizes $9 million to provide a package of essential healthcare services to 150,696 out of the 290,240 poor locals identified by the National Poverty Targeting Program as living below the poverty line.

The second component, valued at $2.85 million, will finance the preparation and scaling-up of the capabilities of the contracted primary healthcare centers for the implementation of the program. It will also finance technical assistance and training for upgrading the skills of personnel of contracted health centers, through short refresher courses to help them cope with additional load and immediate needs of beneficiaries.

The third $1.8 million component is to ensure an effective and efficient administration, regulation and implementation of the project. It also aims to improve the effectiveness of the Ministry of Public Health in contracting with primary healthcare centers.