World Bank increases support for health sector in Bangladesh

The World Bank has approved 150 million U.S. dollars in additional financing to help strengthen Bangladesh's health systems and improve its health services, particularly for the poor.

The additional financing to the Health Sector Development Program will continue support to implement the government's Health Sector-wide Program, said the lender in a statement on Sunday.

It said the support will help the government address health sector challenges, including sustaining and improving immunization coverage, further improving deliveries for pregnant women at public health facilities and tackling multi-drug resistant tuberculosis.

The financing will also help Bangladesh improve public financial management to get more value from its public spending on health. Furthermore, the financing will support developing a robust health information system, including for the first time in Bangladesh a web-based complaint-handling mechanism, it added.

The Health Sector Development Program and its predecessors have contributed to a 40 percent reduction in maternal mortality since 2010, the World Bank said, adding that Bangladesh has reduced under-five child mortality by 29 percent between 2007 and 2014, and during the same period, births attended by medically trained professionals increased from 21 percent to 42 percent.

"The additional financing will follow a new fund disbursement modality linked to the achievement of disbursement linked results, which will pave the way for more results-based intervention in the future," said Bushra Alam, World Bank Task Team Leader for the project.

With this additional financing, the World Bank's support to the project now stands at 508.9 million U.S. dollars. Endit