Bangladesh gets $515 million from WB to improve health services 

Bangladesh has signed a $515 million financing agreement with the World Bank for development of health and nutrition services. 

News Deskbdnews24.com
Published : 28 August 2017, 11:41 AM
Updated : 28 August 2017, 11:49 AM

The fund under the Health Sector Support Project will focus on service improvements in Sylhet and Chittagong divisions, where key health indicators are below national averages, the World Bank said in a statement.

Economic Relations Division or ERD Secretary Kazi Shofiqul Azam and WB Country Director Qimiao Fan signed the deal on Monday in Dhaka in the presence of Health Minister Mohammad Nasim.  
 
The project is financed by a $500 million credit from the International Development Association or IDA, the World Bank’s concessional lending arm, and a $15 million grant from the Global Financing Facility. 

The IDA credits are interest-free and repayable in 38 years, including a 6-year grace period, and carry a service charge of 0.75 percent.
 
Bangladesh has made cut maternal and child mortality rates by more than half since 2000, WB's Fan said in the statement. 

“This financing demonstrates the World Bank’s continued commitment to support government’s strategy to further improve the country’s health and nutrition services for all.” 
 
The project will support the government filling remaining gaps in basic health services, including provision of quality delivery care in public health facilities 800,000 mothers as well as basic immunisation coverage for about five million children between 2017 and 2022.
 
“The government’s Fourth Health, Population, and Nutrition Sector Programme aims to ensure that all  Bangladeshis will have  access to quality and equitable health care in a healthy and safe living environment,” ERD Secretary Azam said.