Submitted by crinadmin on
[WASHINGTON, 2 November 2006] – The World Bank’s Board of Directors approved a $300 million loan to Argentina to improve access to basic health services by poor mothers and children. This is a follow-up to the $135 million first phase approved in 2004. “We are pleased to support the government’s Maternal and Child Health Care Program that includes one of the most innovative approaches to delivering health services to uninsured poor mothers and children in Argentina,” said Axel van Trotsenburg, World Bank Director for Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. “Results in the first phase of Plan Nacer in the northern provinces have been extremely positive, with falling infant mortality, best proof of the contribution of the program. With this new financing we will continue to work to support the national and provincial government efforts to further expand the Plan Nacer and reach more than 2.5 million mothers and children.” This second phase of the Provincial Maternal-Child Health Investment Project will support governmental efforts to improve access to basic health services for the uninsured population by expanding the Maternal Child Health Insurance Program (“Plan Nacer”) at the provincial level. This project will extend Plan Nacer coverage to about 1.7 million poor and uninsured mothers and children in the remaining 15 provinces in central and southern Argentina that did not participate in the first phase of the program, bringing the total number of beneficiaries to 2.5 million. A specific innovative aspect of the project is the shift from financing inputs to financing health outputs and outcomes. Specifically, the project seeks to: increase access for uninsured mothers and children to basic health services known to effectively address the main causes of maternal and under-five mortality in 15 provinces of Argentina; and The single currency, U.S.-dollar, fixed-spread loan is repayable in 15 years, with five years of grace.
strengthen the incentive framework for efficiency and focus on results between the national level and the participating provinces and among provinces and service providers.
“The government program is at the forefront of linking financing with actual service delivery and improvements in the efficiency of the health sector, all directly related to improving the lives of the most vulnerable in Argentina today,” said Cristian C. Baeza, World Bank task manager for the project. “Health service providers are only paid after having actually provided the services, a significant innovation in linking the program financing to actual results.”