Posted by Olumide Adewumi on
The World Bank board of directors approved an International Development Association (IDA) grant of $5million for the health sector support project....
The World Bank board of directors approved an International Development Association (IDA) grant of $5million for the health sector support project (HSSP), an additional grant to scale up activities in malaria monitoring and evaluation (M&E). Malaria accounts for 18 per cent of all hospital deaths in Malawi and the entire population of 11 million is at risk of contracting malaria.
The additional grant is expected to improve management and decision-making and build capacity for M&E of the national malaria control program (NMCP) and the Malawi health sector wide approach (SWAp). Alfred Chirwa, task team leader for the HSSP says, "While primarily targeting malaria, this grant also addresses the critical need to focus on results within the Health Sector".
The grant is an addition to the $15million that was approved in December 2004 for the HSSP. The objective of the HSSP is to improve the effectiveness, efficiency and quality of essential health care services, in particular those provided to the rural poor, women and children through improving human resources management and development; ensuring the provision of an essential health package (EHP), and strengthening the EHP support and referral systems.
The government of Malawi has a strong commitment to controlling malaria because of the significant negative impact it can have on achieving the aims of the SWAp program and the Millennium Development Goals. Malawi's new malaria strategic plan (2005-2010) builds on the achievements of the previous five-year plan, and consistent with the Abuja Declaration and the Roll Back Malaria targets, aims to halve malaria mortality and morbidity by the year 2010.