World Bank extends $52.8m to support health services

AMMAN — Jordan and the World Bank have signed two agreements worth $52.8 million as a soft loan and a grant.

The agreements aim to support the public budget and finance a project to provide integrated social services to improve the quality of life of the most vulnerable youth.

Planning and International Cooperation Minister Imad Fakhoury said in a press statement on Wednesday that the two agreements were signed during his visit to Washington.

During the visit, Fakhoury discussed with senior US officials the US support to Jordan for 2018 and the establishment of the roadmap for the renewal of the memorandum of understanding between the two countries for the years 2018-2022, which governs economic and military aid to Jordan.

The WB’s Acting Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa, Anthonyella Pasini signed the agreement at a ceremony attended by Jordan’s Ambassador to the US Dina Kawar and the Executive Director of the WB Mirza Hassan.

Regarding the first agreement, Fakhoury said that it is an emergency health project agreement aimed at supporting the public budget worth $50 million, of which $36.1 million in the form of a concessional loan from the WB and $13.9 million as a grant through the Concessional Financing Facility (CFF).

The project aims to support the government in maintaining the pace of providing basic and secondary healthcare services to underprivileged citizens that are not health insured and Syrian refugees at the facilities of the Health Ministry. Jordan covers 80 per cent of the costs of providing basic and secondary healthcare for these two categories.

The project consists of two components, the first of which is the provision of healthcare services in the primary and secondary health centres of the ministry to the target people and communities. This component was designed using the results-based funding model, where the specific health services provided to the targeted beneficiaries are covered in MOH centres and hospitals. The second component involves institutional capacity-building that will improve the efficiency of health services provided at the ministry’s centres.

Fakhoury noted that the total value of the project is $150 million. In addition to the $50 million agreement signed with the WB, $100 million will be provided by the Islamic Development Bank, which also includes an additional grant of $21.1 million from the CFF, and will be signed with the Islamic Development Bank during the next few days.

The minister also signed the grant agreement provided through the Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF) with the WB’s management at a value of $2.8 million to fund a project to provide integrated social services for the most affected youth. 

The project aims to improve the quality of life of this group by increasing the provision of services to them by involving young people in the decision-making process, as well as increasing the empowerment of local NGOs, service providers, and communities.

The project consists of two components, the first is to build and raise the capacity of youth-based community organisations through the preparation of a participatory needs assessment, capacity-building plan and the implementation of a series of workshops for partner organisations in support of young people. 

The second component involves holding training programmes to support the Young Volunteers Programme in its efforts to reach the most vulnerable segments of the population, as well as the establishment of youth coordination platforms to prioritise targeted locations.