KYIV
The World Bank has approved two loans to help Ukraine tackle the COVID pandemic more effectively and to modernise the country’s universities.
The Bank announced the loan backing a $90 million project to streamline and improve Ukraine’s health sector response to the pandemic. The project, Ukraine Emergency COVID-19 Response and Vaccination, will provide reimbursement of expenditures to Ukraine’s health service to proceed with about 10 million vaccinations.
The bank said the project sought to help the country not only procure COVID-19 vaccines, but also improve the infrastructure for vaccine storage and logistics: this includes organising service delivery, cost reimbursement for vaccine providers, expanding testi
“This new loan will help Ukraine with purchasing and deployment of vaccines, including through, but not limited to, the COVAX global initiative,” said Arup Banerji, World Bank Regional Country Director for Eastern Europe, referring to the U.N. programme to provide vaccines for less wealthy countries.
“Ukraine has already started vaccinating priority population groups, but the critical objective at this stage is to accelerate the pace of vaccination, while keeping a focus on people with a high risk of getting infected and those most likely to develop COVID-related complications.”
The World Bank previously provided $57 million in lending to support Ukraine’s COVID-19 response in the health sector.
In addition to the difficulties of acquiring and distributing vaccines to take on the pademic, Ukraine faces widespread reluctance to vaccinations. Vaccine reluctance led to Europe’s worst outbreak of measles in 2019, but a recent poll shows Ukrainians more willing to get vaccinated to tackle COVID — according to UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, 63 percent of respondents in a survey said they wanted to become vaccinated.
A second $200 million World Bank loan is intended to modernise Ukraine’s universities and to boost their “relevance to labor market needs”.
The project will be implemented by the Ministry of Education and Science, over five years with the aim of setting up a digital infrastructure for distance learning, as well as new educational and research laboratories. The plan also includes improving the automated higher education management system and enhancing transparency.
“The World Bank is pleased to partner with Ukraine to modernise teaching and learning in universities in line with European standards in order to equip young Ukrainians with the skills they need for the 21st century,” Banerji said.
The European Investment Bank, owned by EU member states, approved a €58 million ($70.1 million) loan to improve vocational education in Ukraine. The money will help create up to ten regional centres of excellence in vocational education and training.