Philippines: World Bank Approves Project to Promote Women’s Health and Safe Motherhood

In Manila: Anissa Tria (632) 917-3013
E-mail: atria2@worldbank.org                                                                                    
In Washington: Melissa Fossberg (202) 458-4145
E-mail: mfossberg@worldbank.org

MANILA, April 21, 2005— The World Bank’s Board of Directors approved today a US$16 million loan for the Second Women’s Health and Safe Motherhood Project (WHSMP2). Covering six project sites, the project aims to contribute to the national goal of improving women’s health by:

·         Demonstrating in selected sites a sustainable, cost-effective model of delivering health services that increases access of disadvantaged women to high quality reproductive health services and enables them to safely attain their desired spacing and number of children.

·         Establishing the core knowledge base and support systems that can facilitate countrywide replication of the project experience as part of mainstream approaches to reproductive health care within the framework of the Health Sector Reform Agenda.

The project will be implemented by the Department of Health (DOH), with substantive participation by provincial and city governments of project sites.

The project has two components:

·         Local Delivery of the Integrated WHSM Service Package. This component will support local governments in mobilizing networks of public and private providers to deliver the integrated Women’s Health and Safe Motherhood service package (WHSM-SP), with focus on maternal care, family planning and STI/HIV control services. This component will initially be implemented in the provinces of Sorsogon and Surigao del Sur. Four other sites will be identified based on health indices (maternal mortality ratio, infant mortality rate, contraceptive prevalence rate), population size, and the local government units (LGUs) expression of interest and willingness to participate.

·         National Capacity to Sustain WHSM Services. This component will develop capacity in the DOH to create an operating environment conducive to LGUs managing and sustaining local delivery of the WHSM-SP and facilitate replication of the integrated WHSM service model throughout the country.

“We are very pleased that this project will soon be implemented because it addresses a major concern—safe motherhood. Public support is strong for extending high quality maternal care to all in both public and private sectors. However, maternal mortality remains high especially among the poorest families, who tend to live in more remote areas. With the concerted effort of the Department of Health and the LGUs involved, we hope that this project will contribute to the decrease in maternal deaths and help improve reproductive health service delivery especially to disadvantaged Filipinos,” said World Bank Philippines Country Director Joachim von Amsberg.

The loan will be in US dollars and will be repaid in 20 years with an eight-year grace period. The indicative interest rate for such loans is currently at 3.66 percent per annum. This is the first loan to the Philippines approved by the World Bank in 2005.

For more information on the World Bank’s activities in the Philippines, please visit www.worldbank.org.ph