Kathmandu: The World Bank has pledged to continue its support for Nepal in its bid for improvement of health system. In a meeting with Minister for Health and Population Mohan Bahadur Basnet on Wednesday, the World Bank’s Country Director for Nepal, Faris Hadad-Zervos, reaffirmed the World Bank’s commitment to continued support to Nepal. Appreciating various cooperation and support from the World Bank to Nepal’s health sector and others, Minister Basnet urged the World Bank to consider additional financial and technical support for Nepal in coming days.
Country Director Zervos shared that the World Bank would provide USD 100 million grant assistance and USD 3,840,000 as a grant for Nepal’s health sector within five years. Zervos expressed his confidence that the World Bank’s support would contribute to enhance quality healthcare services in Nepal during pandemic like COVID-19 and other epidemic. It may be noted that the World Bank had provided vaccine against COVID-19 to Nepal as a grant during COVID-19 pandemic besides some fund to be mobilized for preventive measures. Minister Basnet informed Country Director Zervos that some of the financial assistance received from the World Bank during the COVID-19 pandemic was left over and process was taken ahead so as to spend the remaining amount by his ministry itself. The leftover amount was sent to Ministry of Finance. According to Minister Basnet, the World Bank held the view that the amount should be spent by the Ministry of Health and Population.
The leftover amount will be brought to the MoHP considering the risk of dengue and other risks in the health sector and the possibility of mobilization of the fund. According to the Minister, the remaining amount stands at Rs 1 billion.
Comment