World Bank Approves $125.16 Million Financing to Support Tunisia's Health System
The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors has endorsed a $125.16 million financing package, including a $17.16 million grant from the Pandemic Fund, to support Tunisia's efforts to improve access to resilient, quality, and better-prepared health care services. This support is part of the Tunisia Health System Strengthening Project.
This national initiative aims to strengthen pandemic preparedness and emergency care, modernize primary health care services, and improve governance and digitalization of the public health system. The project supports the implementation of Tunisia's National Health Policy (NHP), a government-led reform strategy focused on equitable access to care, with a particular emphasis on prevention and health protection.
"By strengthening the resilience and responsiveness of Tunisia's health system, this project will ensure that all Tunisians, especially the most vulnerable, can access quality care in a timely manner," said Alexandre Arrobbio, World Bank Operations Manager for Tunisia. "It builds on a solid partnership that has achieved notable results during the COVID-19 crisis, including the provision of personal protective equipment, vaccine deployment, medical oxygen supply, and hospital and laboratory modernization. We are now scaling up these initiatives to support the delivery of health services and prepare for future pandemics at the national level, in close collaboration with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization."
The Tunisia Health System Strengthening Project aims to improve access to critical health care services, emergency care, and quality hospital interventions for the entire population. It will also directly benefit frontline health workers by strengthening their capacities in key areas such as disease surveillance, field epidemiology, and the use of digital systems, including electronic medical records. Aligned with Tunisia's development priorities, the project will contribute to strengthening the country's public health preparedness and ensuring the continuity and quality of essential services.
The project will strengthen the health system through three interdependent components. It will support the development of integrated surveillance systems with a "One Health" approach and strengthen public health and laboratory infrastructure to ensure robust monitoring and response capabilities. It will reorganize primary health care services at the community level by promoting family medicine, adapting facility capacities to real needs, and developing telemedicine and electronic medical records, thus improving accessibility, continuity, and quality of care. Finally, it will improve emergency care and hospital infrastructure by modernizing ambulance fleets, establishing geolocated dispatch systems, and strengthening bed management and triage technologies to ensure effective, equitable, and coordinated service delivery.
"Tunisia is redoubling its efforts to improve health service delivery, aiming to expand and make care more equitable," explained Yassine Kalboussi, World Bank Health Specialist and Team Leader for the project. "This project will support the technological and structural transformation of the health system, strengthen health workforce capacities, and improve service quality, particularly in the most underserved areas."
