Accra, Ghana//-The World Bank has committed a total of $435.8million to support Ghana government’s COVID-19 health response along five strategic pillars to help contain the pandemic in the country.
The World Bank Country Director for Ghana, Frank Pierre Laporte who disclosed this at a virtual forum to mark this year’s End Poverty Day, noted that the Bank’s support to the government went into five strategic pillars.
These pillars he mentioned are- stop importation of COVID-19 cases; contain the spread of the virus; provide adequate care for the sick; limit the impact of the virus on social and economic life; and inspire the expansion of our domestic capability and deepen our self-reliance.
According to him, access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines is a vital tool to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and strengthen global economic recovery.
To this end, Mr Laporte said the pandemic would not end until everyone has access to vaccines.
In Ghana, the World Bank has allocated a significant part of the financing committed (around $150m) for vaccine acquisition including 16.9million doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines throughthe African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT)to achieve the Africa Union (AU)’s and WHO’s target of vaccinating 70% of the total population by mid-2022.
“However, global supply shortage in COVID-19 vaccines has slowed down vaccine deployment in low-income countries. For this reason, the World Bank Group, IMF, WHO, and WTO have formed a task force to accelerate access to COVID-19 vaccines leveraging multilateral finance and trade solutions”.
They are calling for urgent international support to achieve more equitable access to vaccines and help end the pandemic.
“We are urging countries with excess vaccine supplies to release them, quickly and transparently, to developing countries. But, to complement this, developing countries need to quickly put in place effective vaccine procurement and distribution systems”, Mr Laporte, added.
Green, Resilient, and Inclusive Development
Touching on the theme of the 2021 End Poverty Day: ‘Toward a green, resilient, and inclusive recovery and preparing for future crises’, he said: “As the World responds to the COVID-19 crisis, we (at the World Bank) view poverty, climate change, and economic growth as intertwined issues that are going to define our future”.
Countries including Ghana need to achieve sustainable economic growth without further degrading the environment or aggravating inequality.
“We offer our knowledge and experience on climate change, economic management, and social protection to support a resilient recovery based on strong economic growth and job creation: a healthy and vibrant private sector is one of the cornerstones of our COVID strategy”.
They are linking short- and long-term solutions to help developing countries address COVID while laying the foundations for a green, resilient, and inclusive recovery, Mr Laporte stressed.
Supporting the economic recovery
To support the economic recovery of the poorest and vulnerable in Ghana, the Bank supported Government to provide an extraordinary payment to LEAP beneficiaries and provided a one-time payment to 125,000 validated poor people.
“People with disabilities who were seen to be most vulnerable were prioritized in these cash transfers. Our support to the labor-intensive public works continues to include climate change mitigation initiatives through tree planting, afforestation and building of small earth dams for irrigation, especially during the dry seasons.
We are expanding into the urban areas where we will support the provision of jobs to poor people in sanitation, WASH, and afforestation”.
Energy
Reliable energy is key to preventing and fighting COVID-19, and necessary for powering health care and critical communications, and boosting economic activity.
Yet access is lacking in many countries. The World Bank Group is committed to closing this gap by helping countries transition to clean energy and deliver access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy for all, he assured.
“We are advising countries on solutions that are economically viable, tailored to their needs, and informed by the latest policy, financial, and technological innovations. We helped Ghana to transition from liquid fuels to gas, considered a transition fuel option towards scaling up green energy”.
COVID 19 has hit Ghana hard
Kwabena Gyan Kwakye, Economist; and Paul Andres Corrale Rodas, Senior Economist, both at the World Bank Ghana, noted that COVID-19 has hit Ghana hard.
Overall growth is expected to slow considerably in 2020/21 and poverty and social impacts increase, especially for those in agriculture and services sectors where job losses are more widespread, according to them.
“Challenges were emerging prior to COVID-19 despite growth, poverty reduction has stalled, regional inequalities have increased; growth has come mainly from natural resource exploitation with limited job opportunities for a growing youth population, and macroeconomic vulnerabilities are emerging”, Mr Rodas said.
The Government of Ghana aspires to double per capita income by 2030 while achieving greater autonomy in development financing (Ghana Beyond Aid). It seeks to place the economy on a path where every Ghanaian can live a long, productive and meaningful life.
Ghana has been among the fastest growing economies in Africa since 2017 as it achieved lower middle-income status in 2011 and was the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to meet the MDG target of halving extreme poverty by 2015 with much progress in human capital and service delivery. But the deadly COVID-19 pandemic is reversing these gains.
Instructively, the End Poverty Day which falls on October 17 every year is observed by the World Bank Group country offices to review and mark progress toward the eradication of poverty.
Unfortunately, this year, they are not celebrating progress, as has been the case in previous years, primarily because of the global setback caused by the COVID-19 pandemic – Global extreme poverty increased in 2020 for the first time in over 20 years pushing around 100 million people into extreme poverty through job loss, rising prices, and disruptions in services such as education and health care.
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