According to bank documents, the Project objectives are aligned to the results chain of the COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Program (SPRP). The project objective is to prevent, detect and respond to the threat posed by COVID-19 and strengthen national systems for public health preparedness in São Tomé e Príncipe.

The project has four components:

1. Emergency COVID-19 Response [US$ 2,000,000]: This component would provide immediate support to São Tomé e Príncipe (STP) to prevent COVID-19 from arriving or limiting local transmission through containment strategies in line with STP COVID Preparedness and Response Plan. It would support the strengthening of disease detection capacities through provision of technical expertise, laboratory equipment and systems to ensure prompt case finding and contact tracing. It would strengthen Institution and community engagement in ensuring community-based disease surveillance and multi-stakeholder commitment to keep the public informed and empowered to obey to social distancing non-pharmocological interventions (i.e. schools closing, offices shutting down). Lastly, it would enhance clinical care capacity through financing plans for establishing specialized units in selected hospitals, treatment guidelines, clinical training of health workers and hospital infection control guidelines.

   1. Sub-component 1.1 – Case Detection, Confirmation, Contact Tracing, Recording, Reporting [US$650,000]

   2. Sub-component 1.2 – Risk communication, community engagement and social distancing [US$500,000]

   3. Sub-component 1.3 – Health systems capacity to respond to COVID19 [US$ 850,000]

2. Strengthening Multi-sector, National Institutions and Platforms for Policy Development and Coordination of Prevention and Preparedness including One Health approach [US$ 300,000]:

   1. Sub-component 2.1 – Coordination of public health emergency response [US$ 150,000]: - Establish an EOC within MoH to manage COVID19 reponse and in the mid-term be the coordination mechanism for Preparednes and Response activities for PHEs; Define and implement EOC ToR, including SOPs, Job descriptions and roles and responsibilities; Establish coordination multisectoral committees for COVID19;

   2. Sub-component 2.2 – Strengthen One Health Approach [US$ 150,000]: Under the “One Health” framework, this component will also support enhancing zoonotic diseases information systems through development of a uniform disease information system in STP as part of their control program to provide better analytical capacity to enable STP to participate in global disease information sharing, complying with their obligations as members of OIE and WHO, thereby contributing towards progressively better global and regional control.

3. Implementation Management and Monitoring and Evaluation [US$ 200,000]: Support and finance for the strengthening of public structures for the coordination and management of the STP projects will be provided, including central and local (decentralized) arrangements for coordination of activities, financial management and procurement. This component would support monitoring and evaluation of prevention and preparedness, building capacity for clinical and public health research, including veterinary, and joint-learning across and within countries. This component will also support monitoring and evaluation for the strengthening of IHR (2005) capacities in line with the JEE scoring system as outlined in the Results Framework and M&E section.

4. Contingency Emergency Response Component (CERC) (US$0 million): In the event of an Eligible Crisis or Emergency, the project could contribute to providing immediate and effective response to said crisis or emergency.

The World Bank has classified this project as having a Substantial environmental and social risk rating.

World Bank:
Carmen Carpio
Senior Health Specialist

Borrower:
Ministerio do Planeamento, Financas, e Economia Azul
Osvaldo Santos Vaz
Ministro do Planeamento, Financas, e Economia Azul
osvaldos@hotmail.com

Implementing Agencies:
Sao Tome e Principe Ministry of Health
Edgar das Neves
Ministro de Saude
edneves@hotmail.com 

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