Contact: Christopher Neal (202) 473-7229 e-mail: Cneal1@worldbank.org Yanina Budkin (54-11)4316-9700 ybudkin@worldbank.org WASHINGTON, October 16, 2002 — The World Bank today approved a reallocation of $140 million from existing loans to support the Social Emergency Program launched by the Government of Argentina to maintain essential public health and education programs, and to protect the country’s most vulnerable people. “Increased poverty in Argentina has had a severe negative impact on health and education, with growing evidence of a deterioration in the quality of services,” said Axel van Trotsenburg, Director of the World Bank for Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. “We have identified resources from existing loans that could be reallocated to these areas. By doing this, we can better serve the needs of poor people, especially women and children affected by the crisis.” This reallocation will ensure that primary health care clinics can continue to offer basic maternal and child health services, as well as medicines, vaccines and medical equipment. It will also provide basic school supplies to be used by about half the student population in primary and secondary schools. The $140 million financing will be provided for the following: - 27 million doses of vaccines, including hepatitis, and polio, as well as 3.5 million anti-tuberculosis doses;
- Medicines for 17,000 patients with HIV/AIDS, who are being treated in public hospitals;
- Iron-fortified milk as well as hepatitis, polio and anti-tuberculosis vaccines for 250,000 children aged two to five and 55,000 children under one year old. Services related to women’s reproductive health care and prenatal controls, such as anemia prevention, child delivery, infant care, post-partum and child health care, through provision of pharmaceutical products and medical supplies for more than 70,000poor pregnant women;
- Around 3.6 million students — about half of the total student population at primary and secondary levels — will benefit, as the reallocation covers acquisition of 3.6 million sets of basic learning materials for secondary-school students attending targeted high risk schools throughout the country.
World Bank support for the Social Emergency Program World Bank support for the Social Emergency Program has been implemented in two phases. During the first phase of the emergency, the Bank reallocated $100 million in the areas of health, education and community kitchens. The second phase includes the current reallocation of $140 million in health and education. In addition, the World Bank has provided advice on social protection and economic reform and is prepared to provide additional finance for social protection programs. |
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