Armenia: World Bank Supports Health System Modernization

The International Development Association (IDA) Credit will assist the government in improving the organization of the health care system to provide more accessible, efficient and sustainable health care services to the population, in particular to the most vulnerable groups; and, to better manage public health threats.

This is the second World Bank-supported project focused on health sector. The planned activities are linked to the consistent and updated Government strategy and build on successful experience from the previous Bank supported health project completed last December.

“The project will assist the government to scale up the implementation of family medicine based primary health care reforms in Armenia so that every citizen has access to a quality basic health services,”- said Toomas Palu, Head of the World Bank team designing the project. “It will also support public hospital efficiency and quality improvement program to be piloted in selected hospital network institutions. Another important focus of the project will be to help the Ministry of Health to better develop policies and monitor their impact, and   to improve it’s capacity to provide oversight for autonomous health care institutions.“

The Health System Modernization project has three main components:

• Family Medicine Development.   The project will help the State Medical University, National Institutes of Health and Yerevan Basic Nursing College to train 980 well qualified family doctors and family medicine nurses using internationally recognized training plans; expand the Primary Health Care (PHC) Development Program to improve the PHC infrastructure beyond the 81 communities supported under the first health project, and, further development of family medicine relevant PHC guidelines, including primary and secondary prevention of avoidable mortality. The program will also help to strengthen communities’ participation in addressing local health issues through a small grant program.
  
• Hospital Network Optimization and Modernization.  The project would support the development and implementation of strategic restructuring plans for selected hospital network organizations (four in Yerevan and one per region) which will include: relocation of services through consolidation of infrastructure and services; essential medical equipment; modernization of management structures and improving management capacity through providing technical assistance and training; strengthen accountability arrangements; IT equipment for essential financial management systems; introducing quality assurance systems; help to mitigate social consequences from staffing reorganization; improving management of health care waste; and, technical assistance to update regional health services masterplans.
  
• Strengthening Government capacity to develop and monitor effective health sector policies. This component would strengthen capacity of the Ministry of Health and its key agencies to perform its major functions of policy development and implementation monitoring, regulation and oversight of the health sector. It also supports strengthening governance and management structures of health care provider institutions and the oversight function of regional Government (marz) structures. The project will help to build capacity for evaluation of health sector performance by developing core monitoring instruments that are needed to inform decision makers (Health Sector Performance Report, National Health Accounts); strengthen legal and regulatory environment, as well as institutional capacity conducive to improved supervision, accountability and management of public hospitals; improve public expenditure management in health sector; and, improve surveillance of HIV/AIDS and other public health threats by complementing the activities supported by the Global Fund to fight AIDS. 

The Credit will be made to Armenia on standard IDA terms, including 40 years maturity and a 10-year grace period.

Since joining the World Bank in 1992 and IDA in 1993, the commitments to Armenia total approximately US$815, 65 million for 35 operations.

For more information on the World Bank’s activities in Armenia,  please visit:
http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/eca/armenia.nsf