The World Bank has approved $30 million (Around MK 2 trillion) in additional financing to support Malawi in the acquisition and deployment of safe, affordable and effective Covid19 vaccines.
The support comes at airtime when health centers have run of the doses as the second administration of the vaccine is underway.
This is an additional financing for the existing Malawi’s COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness project bringing the World Bank contributions to the country’s health sector COVID-19 response and vaccination efforts to a total of $37 million.
The additional financing will mostly go towards the procurement and deployment of eligible COVID-19 vaccines to cover an estimated eight percent of the population by December 2023.
The additional funds will accelerate the Government of Malawi’s ongoing efforts to deploy COVID-19 vaccines and strengthen the national systems for public health preparedness.
“As Malawi rolls out the second phase of vaccination which extends beyond the initially targeted group, the demand for more vaccines to reach a larger share of the population is huge. This financing will therefore help Malawi acquire and deploy safe and effective vaccines according to our National Vaccine Deployment Plan,” said Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda, Minister of Health.
Specifically, the additional financing will support (i) strengthening surveillance and case management; vaccine procurement and deployment, including associated risk communication and demand generation;
(ii) building national and sub-national capacity to prepare and respond to health emergencies; and (iii) enhancing implementation management and monitoring and evaluation (including monitoring and reporting of adverse occurrences and improving grievance redress mechanisms through a dedicated hotline and enhancing citizen engagement activities).
