World Bank commits $ 200 m to elevate Sri Lanka’s public health services

The World Bank has committed $ 200 million to upgrade the standards of performance of Sri Lanka’s public health system under the Second Health Sector Development Project for Sri Lanka.
Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne announced the World Bank’s support for the project at the closing ceremony of the Second Health Sector Development Project held yesterday in Colombo.
The development objective of the project is to enable it to better respond to the challenges of malnutrition and non-communicable diseases.

The World Bank is supporting the project with $ 200 million in financing from the International Development Association (IDA).

The project includes two components. The first component provides support to priority areas under the National Health Development Plan. This component covers multiple areas: addressing maternal and child health and nutrition; improving the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases; and health systems improvement. The second component of the project focuses on innovation, results monitoring and capacity-building.

This program includes 35 new projects in the health sector including the prevention of non-communicable diseases, infrastructure development and providing accident services at an international standard level.

Minister Rajitha Senaratne said raising the standards and overall quality of the health service was a key priority of the Government.

Project Director Dr. S.C. Wickremesinghe said that the health sector was able to receive the World Bank financial support of $ 200 million due to it diligently reaching targets following its tremendous effort.

Health Services Director General Dr. Anil Jasinghe, World Bank representatives and Health Ministry officials were present at the occasion.