Argentina: World Bank Approves $220 Million for Public Health

Contacts:

In Washington:  Stevan Jackson (202) 458-5054

sjackson@worldbank.org

In Buenos Aires: Mara Laudonia (54-11) 4316-9724

mlaudonia@worldbank.org

WASHINGTON, November 21, 2006 – The World Bank’s Board of Directors today approved a $220 million loan to Argentina to improve the capacity of the health system to promote healthy life styles; prevent new public health risks, emergencies and disasters associated with illness, and to increase the effectiveness of public health programs, such as AIDS prevention and Tuberculosis control.   This new program together with the project for maternal and child care approved by the board at the beginning of November (second phase of Plan Nacer) makes up a central pillar of the Bank's new Country Assistance Strategy in Argentina.

“During the last few years, the Government and the Bank have built a strong partnership in supporting the social recovery through major health programs. We very much recognize the positive impact of the Government's health programs as, for example, can be seen in the falling infant mortality rates ”, said Axel van Trotsenburg, World Bank Director for Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. “Our continued support is reflected by today's approval of the $220 million public health project which comes in addition to a $300 million project approved early November for the Plan Nacer”, he remarked.

The Essential Public Health Functions and Programs Project seeks to support Argentina’s federal health plan and its objectives of reducing mortality and morbidity. The project objective is to increase the coverage of ten prioritized public health programs and to improve the stewardship role and appropriate regulatory environment of Argentina’s public health system.

Specifically, the project will support the following activities:

·         Strengthen national and provincial health stewardship and capacity to carry out essential public health functions.

·         Improve the efficient allocation of resources for priority public health programs.

·         Expand coverage, improve quality, and assure the universal delivery of a package of priority public health programs. The project will help to improve immunization coverage, an important goal of the federal health plan, and will focus on preventing tuberculosis and chronic illnesses.  

·         Reduce exposure to disease and injury risk factors by promoting healthy lifestyles.

The project includes a rapid response mechanism in case an epidemic or natural disaster occurs. Thereby it would facilitate a rapid and organized response from the health sector administration.

According to Fernando Lavadenz, World Bank task manager for the project, “with this program, the Government places Argentina at the forefront of health sector policies of public health in Latin America. It will also tackle some of Argentina’s major health challenges, addressing the high regional inequity of health outcomes, and reducing the preventable burden of disease from non-communicable diseases.” It is estimated that a significant number of lives could be saved in Argentina with adequate health promotion, illness prevention or early detection of the most common non-communicable diseases, including cardiovascular diseases and Diabetes.

The single currency, U.S.-dollar, fixed-spread loan is repayable in 15 years, with five years of grace.