Haiti Boosts Access to Essential Health Services with IDB Support

WASHINGTON — The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a $100 million grant to help Haiti rebuild essential health services in its three northern departments to save lives and prevent disabilities.

The operation, which has been approved by the IDB's Board of Executive Directors, will contribute to improving the health system, conduct key health surveys and analyses for health management, and advance the digitalization of health care, using the information to develop a medium-term investment master plan.

The initiative will also build on interventions carried out since 2022 through IDB-supported social protection operations and will directly support the delivery of essential services aimed at preventing and treating prevalent noncommunicable diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension, as well as infectious diseases including cholera, tuberculosis, malaria, HIV, and human papillomavirus. 

To help empower underserved groups, such as internally displaced people, return migrants, vulnerable women, and people with disabilities, the program will develop care protocols that reflect their preferences.

The greater part of the grant resources will go toward strengthening health infrastructure to enhance the response capacity of the network of facilities serving priority communities. This will be the first stage of a longer-term commitment to rebuild the public health network’s response capacity, beginning with the greater northern region.

This grant will be disbursed and implemented over 84 months. The project is expected to directly benefit 750,000 people in specific communities, starting in the country’s three northern departments.