August 5, 2022
The Haitian Government, represented by the Minister of Economy and Finance, Michel Patrick Boisvert, and the Chief of Operations of the World Bank in Haiti, Laurent Msellati, proceeded this Thursday to the signing of three grant agreements totaling USD 66 million for the health and disaster risk management sectors. This amount, made up of additional financing for three ongoing projects, is directly in line with the priority given by the World Bank to respond to the various crises affecting the country and which contribute to increasing the vulnerability and fragility that characterize the country. Haitian economy.
More specifically, these donations represent part of the World Bank’s commitment to continue its support to improve the health conditions of the population in the areas affected by the tragic earthquake of 2021, which occurred in the context of a health crisis – COVID19 – and major international uncertainties, first and foremost the Russia-Ukraine conflict and its consequences for the supply of energy and grain.
“Strengthening human capital and improving disaster risk management are two essential axes of the World Bank’s partnership framework in Haiti,” said Laurent Msellati, Chief of Operations of the World Bank in Haiti . “The World Bank is helping the Haitian government improve access to and the quality of basic health services and is supporting the relaunch of vaccination against the Corona virus as well as routine vaccination. We also support the Government’s efforts to increase the country’s resilience to climate and seismic risks through various investment programs designed to strengthen the capacity of the population and infrastructure to deal with these phenomena. »
In the health sector, additional financing of USD 35 million was approved on May 23, 2022, for the Haiti COVID-19 Pandemic Response Project , followed on June 16 by the approval of additional financing US$20 million for the Project to Strengthen Primary Health Care and Surveillance in Haiti (PROSYS) . Finally, on May 26, 2022, the World Bank’s Board of Directors allocated additional funding of US$11 million for the Risk Management and Climate Resilience Project (PGRAC) .
A large part of this additional financing represents the World Bank’s contribution to the National Program for the Recovery and Reconstruction of the Southern Peninsula hard hit by the earthquake of August 14, 2021, responsible for the loss of 2,246 human lives and 329 missing, as well as many injured. The economic impact of this disaster which occurred in three departments of the Southern Peninsula was estimated at around 2 billion USD in damages and losses. These funds will also strengthen Haiti’s preparedness to face possible future health crises.
At the February 2022 donor conference, the World Bank pledged to provide approximately USD 200 million to support the Haitian government’s response. With the signing of these last three Grant Agreements, the entire amount is now available for the Haitian Government to execute the program as soon as possible and to complete the interventions already underway.