World Bank awards US$25 million grant to Tajikistan for the purchase and supply of COVID-19 vaccines

The document was signed here yesterday by Mr. Faiziddin Qahhorzoda, the Minister of Finance of Tajikistan and Mr. Ozan Sevimli, World Bank Country Manager for Tajikistan.  

This grant is additional funding for the Tajikistan Emergency COVID-19 Project, to further strengthen Tajikistan’s heath care capacity and protect vulnerable population groups in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The objective of the Emergency COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Project is to prepare and respond to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic in Tajikistan.  There are four components to the project, the first component being strengthening intensive care capacity.  As COVID-19 (Coronavirus) will place a substantial burden on inpatient services, this component will strengthen clinical care capacity by financing specialized intensive care units in selected hospitals, the procurement of medical supplies and equipment, training, and minor refurbishment required to upgrade and expand capacity to treat patients with the most severe manifestations of COVID-19 (Coronavirus). This component includes two subcomponents: infection prevention and control and improving and establishing ICUs.  The second component is the multisectoral response planning and community preparedness. This component will support information and communication activities to increase the attention and commitment of government, private sector, and civil society, and to raise awareness, knowledge and understanding among the general population about the risk and potential impact of the pandemic and to develop multi-sectoral strategies to address the pandemic.  The third component is the temporary social support for vulnerable household.  This component will finance targeted, nutrition-sensitive cash transfers to provide time-limited support to vulnerable households, particularly food insecure households with young children where food price shocks caused by the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic can negatively affect children’s nutrition status and jeopardize the human capital investments being made by the Government of Tajikistan and the WB. This component will finance the cash transfers, and cover the costs of benefit administration, including the cost of expanding capacity of the beneficiary data base. 

The original Tajikistan Emergency COVID-19 Project was approved in April 2020 to support Tajikistan’s response to COVID-19.

According to data of the World Bank, about 53 percent of adult population of Tajikistan has got one COVID-19 vaccine shot to date and 48 percent of the country’s adult population has reportedly got both COVID-19 vaccine shots to date.  

Additional funding will help the country eliminate the vaccine shortage and meet the recent national target to vaccinate all citizens over the age of 12.

Currently, the World Bank is financing 23 projects in Tajikistan totaling at US$1.29 billion.  Since 1996, the World Bank has provided over US$2.3 billion in IDA grants, highly concessional credits, and trust funds for Tajikistan.  The World Bank Group is committed to continuing its support for Tajikistan as it strives to improve the lives and meet the aspirations of its young and growing population.