Second AF Ecuador COVID-19 Emergency Response and Vaccination Project

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The WBG Project is comprised of two components to support the Government’s strategic plan to prevent and respond to the threat posed by COVID-19 and strengthen national systems for public health preparedness. The first Additional Financing (AF1) expanded the scope of the project to include the procurement and deployment of vaccines against COVID-19. The second Additional Financing (AF2) further scales-up vaccination, and expands the scope to provide financing for critical health services and institutional strengthening of the Ministry of Health (MoH). The project also incorporates climate change adaptation and mitigation measures throughout the sub-components, as applicable, and addresses gender issues as necessary.Component 1: Support the National Program to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic (US$267.5 million). This component is structured around two complementary subcomponents aimed at containing the spread of the pandemic in Ecuador. It finances the national communication strategy and medical and non-medical equipment, medical devices, and consultant and non-consultant services. AF1 expanded the scope of the component to include vaccination. AF2 provides scale-up support for vaccination and expands the scope of the component to include financing for critical health care services provided through the Complementary Private Network (Red Privada Complementaria, RPC) and institutional strengthening of the MoH. Subcomponent 1.1: Support the national communication strategy to control the spread of COVID-19. This subcomponent has financed a sustained, national communication plan to (i) develop and disseminate guidelines for health workers and (ii) to raise population awareness to slow down the spread of the disease, and thus mitigating the rapid increase in demand for critical health services. The AF1 expanded the scope of this subcomponent to include vaccination related communication activities. Subcomponent 1.2: Strengthen critical aspects of health delivery to cope with increased demand of services posed by COVID-19 pandemic. This sub-component has financed the strengthening of the public health services, by equipping essential medical services, mainly Intensive Care Units (ICU), to increase the capacity of the public health system for the response to the COVID-19. Under AF1, the scope of this subcomponent was expanded in its cost and scope to support the procurement of vaccines, PPE and medical supplies, strengthening of the immunization supply chain system, and registration and logistics. Under AF2, this component will continue to finance the procurement of additional doses of vaccines against COVID-19. AF2 will also support the MoH to retroactively finance critical services that were disrupted during the pandemic. To this end, the MoH is contracting services for critical needs such as dialysis, cancers diagnosis and treatment, complications of NCDs, among others, to hospitals in the RPC. Finally, AF2 will support the development and operationalization of the new 10-year health plan, the flagship agenda for the MoH to improve the health sector’s readiness to respond public health threats and to modernize the health sector (estimated cost US$1 million).Component 2: Project Management and Monitoring (US$2.5 million). This component finances: (i) staff and operational costs of the Project Implementation Unit (PIU) at the MoH; (ii) monitoring or project implementation and reporting; and (iii) technical assistance activities as needed.