Maputo, 3 Sep (AIM) – The World Bank has announced the disbursement of 201 million US dollars aimed at funding Mozambique’s health system.
According to João Pires, Head of Health Projects at the World Bank, who was speaking in Maputo on Tuesday, at the launch of the Health Emergency Preparedness, Response and Resilience (HEPR) project, the support reflects the Bank’s regional, global, and national commitment to investing in health systems.
Pires explained that the fund will strengthen the resilience of the Mozambican health system by promoting better multisector preparedness and response to public health emergencies, including epidemic outbreaks and natural disasters.
The fund will also benefit 50,000 health professionals, “at a moment when we know that external financial assistance is experiencing serious difficulties. We know that this assistance has been declining, at a time when needs continue to increase.”
For his part, Mozambican Health Minister Ussene Isse said that the support will make it possible to establish digital health human resources information management platforms, “developing curricula for medical, nursing, and other health professional specializations, and create a job portal to enable efficient recruitment of human resources.”
“The amount is also aimed at providing scholarships and grants for doctoral, master’s, specialization, and postgraduate training, with the intention of encouraging health professionals to train and develop skills in the area of digital health”, he said.
According to Isse, the programme will also improve access to quality health products, including capacity building for the local production of medicines and health products, establishing a favorable regulatory and legal environment for the local production of medicines and health products, and improving early detection and response to health emergencies through a multisector approach.
“This programme will further support collaborative multisector surveillance and laboratory diagnostics, ensure timely verification, investigation, and risk assessment of alerts, expand laboratory capacity, and test for threats to human, animal, and environmental health”, he said.
(AIM)
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