| Project Detail |
As part of the response to the Covid-19 epidemic, AFD is supporting the Bangladeshi government through a public policy loan focused on the vaccination campaign and the structural strengthening of the national health and social protection system. CONTEXT Bangladesh is confronted on the one hand with a significant prevalence of vector-borne diseases aggravated by climate change, and on the other hand with the increase in non-communicable diseases linked to the demographic transition. Public investments in health remain limited to date, resulting in shortcomings in terms of quality human resources, distribution of infrastructure across the territory and availability of equipment, particularly in laboratories. Added to this is the lack of health insurance and risk pooling mechanisms: this translates into high expenses borne by patients, at the risk of pushing them below the poverty line. DESCRIPTION The project comes in the form of a matrix of public policies, including measures and indicators defined with the Bangladeshi authorities and aimed at strengthening the resilience of the health and social protection system. The activities will contribute in particular to supporting the medical personnel involved in the response to Covid-19, to improving the quality of human resources, health infrastructures as well as epidemiological surveillance through laboratories, to setting up non-contributory mechanisms for health insurance and to promote an increase in resources for financing health. In a cross-cutting manner, the project will strengthen the capacity of health services to adapt to climate change by improving the monitoring of climate-sensitive diseases as well as the energy efficiency of infrastructures and disaster risk preparedness. The project also aims to promote gender equality in access to vaccines, quality health services, health insurance, and training and salary bonuses for female medical personnel. IMPACTS The main expected effect is the medium- and long-term strengthening of Bangladeshs health and social protection system. Specifically, it is expected to achieve: a critical level of immunity against Covid-19 within the population by supporting the response to the health crisis a quality care offer through investments in infrastructure, training of human resources and the strengthening of epidemiological surveillance to detect emerging pathogens (including climate-sensitive diseases) an extension of universal health coverage through non-contributory insurance mechanisms. |
