World Bank approves $120m for disease surveillance project

The Word Bank’s Board of Directors has committed and approved US$120 million to the work plans of the third Regional Disease Surveillance Systems Enhancement (REDISSE) Project.

The REDISSE project is a regional project funded by the World Bank, covering all 15 ECOWAS’ countries and Mauritania, in five-year phases from 2016 to 2023. The first phase covers Guinea, Senegal and Sierra Leone while the second phase has in its scope, Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia and Togo.

Speaking yesterday at the opening of the technical subcommittee meeting of the REDISSE project in Lagos, Nigeria, the World Bank Senior Health Specialist, Mr John Paul Clark, said the project had a total of $367.8 million and aimed to strengthen disease surveillance and response systems at regional level and in ECOWAS member states and Mauritania.

The World Bank specialist said REDISSE project “is now providing credits and grants to 11 countries in West African Health Organisation (WAHO) with the budget growing to US$400 milion.”

Reviewing the implementation of the program, the World Bank expressed displeasure that REDISSE 1 (Guinea, Sierra Leone and Senegal) had a disbursement ratio of only 14 percent, compelling the downgrading in June 2018 from satisfactory to moderate, warning that it could fall to unsatisfactory “unless the pace of implementation increases.”