Additional Financing for the Argentina: COVID-19 Emergency Response Project

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The Argentina COVID-19 Emergency Response Project (P173767 – the Parent Project) was approved for a US$35 million IBRD loan by the World Bank Board of Executive Directors on April 2, 2020 under the COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SPRP). The Parent Project is part of a World Bank Multi-Phase Programmatic Approach (MPA) designed to support countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Project Development Objective (PDO) is to strengthen preparedness and response efforts against the COVID-19 pandemic and national systems for public health preparedness in Argentina. The proposed Additional Financing (AF) would support the scale-up of the scope of the parent project with new activities that contribute to the original PDO and enhance the impact of the Parent Project. The AF will cover both the procurement of vaccines and technical assistance (TA). The AF will support health system strengthening activities in a way that ensures an effective COVID-19 response and enables long-lasting resilience.The support for vaccines when available, which was anticipated in the initial Global COVID-19 MPA, will be added as part of the containment and mitigation measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infections and deaths under Component 1: Emergency COVID-19 Response, incorporating a new Subcomponent 1.3: Purchasing of COVID-19 vaccines and strengthening the Country’s immunization system. The Vaccine Introduction Readiness Assessment Tool and Vaccine Readiness Assessment Framework (VIRAT/VRAF 2.0) has been completed indicating that the country is 81 percent ready to deploy COVID-19 vaccines. The assessment results indicate that the country has made significant progress in strengthening several essential aspects of a COVID-19 vaccine deployment. However, there are some essential aspects of the immunization system that are currently still in progress. The AF will support TA to bring immunization systems and service delivery capacity to the level required to successfully deploy COVID-19 vaccines at scale through Component 1.3 and Component 2; to this end, the AF is geared to assist the GoA towards overcoming some of the readiness gaps identified in the COVID-19 vaccine readiness assessment working with WHO/PAHO. In addition, Component 2 of the Parent Project would be scaled up to support monitoring and evaluation activities related to the implementation of the COVID-19 National Strategic Vaccination Plan (NSVP).Component 1: Emergency COVID-19 Response (Original allocation US$ 33.9 million, Revised allocation US$ 532.9 million) - Subcomponent 1.3: Purchasing of COVID-19 vaccines and strengthening the Country’s immunization system (Original allocation US$ 0 million; Revised allocation US$ 499 million). The AF will finance goods, consulting services, and non-consulting services needed for: a. Vaccine purchasing and vaccine importing costs, such as customs fees and customs handling services;b. Training of health workers, vaccine administrators, vaccine chain and logistics staff, to strengthen delivery systems of COVID-19 vaccines, with a focus on long-term strengthening of the country’s immunization system enabling it to also deal with climate-related communicable diseases into the future;c. Technical assistance for supporting communication activities to reduce vaccine hesitancy, generate confidence, acceptance, and demand for COVID-19 vaccines, addressing risk and safety aspects and promoting community engagement;d. Technical assistance for strengthening and adapting surveillance and pharmacovigilance systems to improve vaccine safety;e. Technical assistance and training for strengthening waste management procedures and resources for immunization activities adopting approaches and technologies that minimize the impact on climate change; and,f. Supporting supervision, Technical Assistance and operational costs required to strengthen the vaccination system.Further Investments in closing the gaps identified under the VIRAT/VRAF assessment will contribute to the strengthening of the overall health system in the medium term.Component 2: Implementation Management and M&E (original allocation US$ 1.1 million; revised allocation US$ 2.1 million). This component supports the capacity of the National Project Coordination Team under the Secretariat of Administrative Management and the technical directorates under the Secretariat of Health Access to coordinate activities with other areas under the National Ministry of Health NMOH, the 24 Provincial Ministries of Health, the National Immunization Commission and other entities, and to manage the Environmental and Social, FM and procurement functions of the Project. This Component also supports the M&E of Project implementation. The allocation of financing to this component was increased to account for the expanded scope of the Project through the addition of vaccine purchase, training and technical assistance under Component 1 and the extension of the closing date.Finally, Retroactive Financing will be available from this AF only for the purchasing of vaccines that meet the WB’s VAC and procurement standards.