BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 3
By Zeyni Jafarov - Trend:
The World Bank Board of Directors is expected to approve the Azerbaijan COVID-19 Emergency Response Project in early September 2021, WB told Trend on June 3.
The cost of the project is currently unknown, but the amount of the loan that the bank plans to allocate for its implementation may amount to up to $95 million.
The project is aimed at supporting the efforts to restrain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Azerbaijan, strengthen the healthcare system to detect and treat coronavirus cases and mitigate some social consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The project consists of three components, which envisage support to Azerbaijan through financing in the spheres of preventing the spread of COVID-19, temporary assistance to socially vulnerable categories of the population, as well as project implementation management and monitoring.
According to the bank, as temporary support for socially vulnerable categories of the population, targeted social assistance is envisaged in the amount of 225 manat ($132) per month to 47,000 families and a three-month allowance in the amount of 190 manat ($111) to 170,000 out of 600,000 citizens who have lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Management and monitoring will support the administrative and human resources required to implement the project.
The executors of the project are the State Agency on Compulsory Health Insurance and the Azerbaijani Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population, the borrower is the Ministry of Finance.
Azerbaijan has been cooperating with the World Bank since 1992. To date, the World Bank has allocated loans to Azerbaijan totaling $3.5 billion for the implementation of more than 50 projects.
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