World Bank is funding Bangladesh to strengthen health facilities

The World Bank has allocated 570 million dollars for two projects in Bangladesh for improving health, nutrition and population services to strengthen public procurement. “The World Bank and the (Bangladesh) government have been working together for years to improve the health sector and public procurement performance,” Qimiao Fan, World Bank director for Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal said in a statement.

“The $515 million Health Sector Support Project will strengthen the country’s health system and improve quality and coverage of essential service delivery, with a focus on the Sylhet and Chittagong divisions, where key health indicators are below national average,” he said in the statement.

“It aims to increase the number of mothers receiving quality delivery care in public health facilities to at least 146,000 annually in Sylhet and Chittagong divisions. It will also provide basic immunization to nearly 5 million children,” Fan said.

As Bangladesh experiences demographic changes, the project will help address emerging health challenges, such as non-communicable diseases. In Sylhet and Chittagong divisions, it will support school-based adolescent health and nutrition services, the statement said.

The project will also help improve Bangladesh’s financial management and procurement in the sector and develop a robust health information system. It will enable over 7,000 community clinics to provide complete essential data on service delivery, and ensure at least 150 health facilities to each have two accredited midwives on staff.

 _{Source: First Post}