The World Bank today approved a US$20 million grant package. This package is composed of US$9 million from International Development Association (IDA), US$$7.76 million from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), and US$3.25 million from the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund (HEPR). This is the first additional financing to the Yemen’s COVID-19 Response Project (YCRP), bringing the World Bank’s total contributions to the country’s national COVID-19 response and vaccination campaign to US$47 million.

The additional resources will support some of the deployment costs of administering vaccines to at least 1.3 million people. It will also help cover the costs of monitoring and specialized analysis—carried out by the Health Resources and Services Availability Monitoring System (HeRAMS)—and more training for two national COVID-19 hotline centers in Aden and Sana’a. The Yemen COVID-19 Response Project will continue to support the early detection and screening of the virus, provide essential medicines and medical equipment to treatment centers, and build the capacity of human resources to address the pandemic.

“Years of conflict have taken a massive toll on the health system in Yemen. Only half of the country’s health facilities remain open and still lack essential items to be fully functional –water, fuel, and oxygen amongst others.” said Tania Meyer, World Bank Country Manager for Yemen. “These additional resources will help strengthen the healthcare system, facilitate the rollout of the vaccine and protect the poorest households from the direct impact of the pandemic.”