Contact: Andrea Beckwith (202) 473-4051
Fax: (202) 522-3405
To obtain project documents please contact the World Bank's Infoshop
at tel: 202-458-5454, fax: 202-522-1500, email: Enquiries
WASHINGTON, May 20, 1998 —The World Bank yesterday approved a US$85 million equivalent International Development Association (IDA) credit to China for the Basic Health Services Project to assist the government in achieving sustainable health improvements for the populations of poor rural counties.
The project will help to advance the World Bank's ongoing efforts to alleviate poverty and promote human development by meeting the basic health needs of the rural poor, and to improve public funding of essential social infrastructure through reform of the health finance system. Investments under the project are designed to address three broad problems identified in the rural health sector-inefficiency and imbalance of capital investments, inefficiency in achieving health gains from health expenditures, and financial barriers to access of the very poor to services. The project sets out to strengthen China's rural health sector by improving the allocation and management of health resources, upgrading rural health facilities, improving the quality and effectiveness of health services and programs, and increasing the risk sharing and affordability of essential health care for the poor.
The project has been prepared in two parts. The first part, the main Basic Health Services project (IDA US$70 million equivalent), will be implemented in a total of 71 counties in seven provinces, covering a population of 35 million. The second part, the Qinba Health Program (IDA US$15 million equivalent), covers 13 million people in 26 counties of three provinces. Activities under the latter program will focus in particular on maternal and child health care and other key health interventions, such as tuberculosis control and immunization, and on a medical financial assistance program which reimburses providers for the costs of defined services for the very poor and reduces the cost of services for the poorest families.
The improvement of basic health services for the rural poor is expected to have a significant economic and poverty impact, as improved health increases the income generating capacity of the poor. The contribution of debts from medical care to poverty in rural China is well recognized, involving an estimated three percent of rural households at any one time.
Both the government and the Bank regard this project as a major initiative to test and demonstrate the implementation of national priorities in rural health sector reform for poor areas with the aims of regaining lost momentum in health status improvement among the rural poor, and improving the effectiveness, efficiency, and accessibility of services for this group. The urban health sector lies outside the scope of the project, although the Bank has supported government efforts in this area through other projects and non-lending services.
The total project costs of US$129.2 million will be financed jointly by the IDA credit and the Chinese government's own injection of US$44.2 million. The US$85 million equivalent credit will be disbursed over a period of six years on standard IDA terms. |
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