World Bank approves US$500M loan to support Indonesia's COVID-19 response

The government of Indonesia’s vaccination program aims to provide free COVID-19 vaccines to its adult population of 181.5 million people.

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors today approved a loan of US$500 million to expand Indonesia's efforts to respond to the threats posed by COVID-19, strengthen the preparedness of its health system, and support the government’s free vaccination program.

The new financing uses a results-based approach to encourage the use of government systems and augments the previous financing that has supported the government in expanding its capacity for patient isolation, increasing the availability of critical care beds, scaling up testing capacity, and strengthening public risk communications, surveillance and pandemic preparedness.

"In addition to supporting the government's free vaccination program to reach Indonesia’s entire adult population, this financing will help Indonesia’s health system become more resilient and strengthen our surveillance through testing and tracing of new COVID-19 cases, including genomic surveillance for new variants," said Budi Gunadi Sadikin, Minister of Health of the Republic of Indonesia.

The government of Indonesia’s vaccination program aims to provide free COVID-19 vaccines to its adult population of 181.5 million people. While the new financing will not be used for vaccine procurement, it is designed to strengthen the readiness of the country’s vaccine deployment system and support Indonesia’s overall health service delivery system.

This new financing focuses on three result areas: improved health service delivery; stronger surveillance and quality control in laboratories; and better communication and coordination for emergency response and vaccine delivery. The financing will help improve the readiness of hospital and health service delivery systems and maintain essential, non-COVID health services – with special attention being paid to the needs of women and vulnerable population groups.

Improved surveillance systems and enhanced quality in public health laboratories will help further improve Indonesia’s COVID-19 testing capacity and strengthen its abilities for genomic surveillance, while enhanced communication and coordination for emergency response and vaccine delivery will help ensure fair and equitable prioritization for health services and vaccine distribution, strengthen vaccine logistics and information management systems, and expand public risk communication to reach the entire population.

"This financing will help Indonesia deliver safe and effective vaccines. It will also strengthen the resilience of the country’s health sector and improve its response capacity beyond the pandemic," said Satu Kahkonen, World Bank Country Director for Indonesia and Timor-Leste.“ Altogether, this support from the World Bank, along with support from other international development partners, will strengthen the Government’s efforts to efficiently curb the impact of the pandemic and improve healthcare systems and services."

In addition, to support from the World Bank, partners including the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and Germany’s KfW are also co-financing the operation – bringing the total financial support for this initiative to $1.245 billion.