The World Bank on Friday approved an aid of $100 million to be given to Africa’s main public health body, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) to help African countries prepare for, detect and respond to any disease outbreak, reported The Reuters.
The Africa CDC has been playing a major role in guiding African countries during the COVID-19 pandemic and is also providing information on diseases like monkeypox.
In a statement, the World Bank said that the financial support would help boost the Africa CDC’s technical capacity and increase the number of epidemiologists and outbreak responders at the subregional and member state level.
“The project will help to cultivate regional capabilities critical to ensuring a resilient and prepared continent,” the bank said in the statement.
It added that the funding will help to build and maintain a robust public health workforce across African countries’ health systems and to strengthen leadership on the continental research and development and preparing agenda for diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines.
Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, the acting director at Africa CDC, said the fund had come at a crucial time as it will help enhance support to African countries.
The World Bank project will help expand and strengthen Africa CDC’s institutional footprint to provide support to member states.
Ouma said the Africa CDC looks forward to collaborating with the World Bank and other international partners to maximize the impact of the crucial investment in guaranteeing the future health of the continent.
In related news, on Thursday, the World Bank agreed to provide the United Nation’s World Food Programme (WFP) with $100 million to address growing food insecurity in Sudan.
Earlier this year, the WFP estimated that the number of people experiencing crisis and emergency levels of hunger will reach 18 million, nearly half the country’s population, by September in Sudan, a country of about 45 million.
