KATHMANDU, April 4: The Government of Nepal and the World Bank have signed an agreement for additional financing of $75 million to support access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines for Nepal’s prioritized populations.
The agreement was signed by the Finance Secretary, Sishir Kumar Dhungana on behalf of the Government of Nepal and the World Bank Country Director for Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka, Faris Hadad-Zervos.
“The additional financing is an important and timely support to the government’s overall plans to vaccinate at least 72 percent of the Nepali population,” stated Sishir Kumar Dhungana, Finance Secretary. “It supports the government’s health response to the pandemic, by supporting procurement of COVID-19 vaccines as well as strengthening health systems for their effective deployment as per the National Deployment and Vaccination Plan.”
The additional financing builds on the $29 million for the original COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness Project that was signed in April 2020. The project will be implemented under the leadership of the Ministry of Health and Population by the Department of Health Services and associated institutional bodies.
