Sri Lanka : Responsive COVID-19 Vaccines for Recovery Project under the Asia Pacific Vaccine Access Facility
The project will provide the Government of Sri Lanka with immediate and flexible financing to support the national COVID-19 vaccination program through APVAX and the regular country allocation. The APVAX allocation comprises a rapid response component (RRC) to support the purchase of Asian Development Bank (ADB) eligible COVID-19 vaccines, while the project investment component (PIC) financed by the regular country allocation will support strengthening of the vaccination information dissemination and monitoring systems, vaccine transportation capacity, and vaccine-related medical waste management.
Project Details
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Project Officer
Jayasundara, Herathbanda
South Asia Department
Request for information -
Country/Economy
Sri Lanka -
Sector
- Health
| Project Name | Responsive COVID-19 Vaccines for Recovery Project under the Asia Pacific Vaccine Access Facility | ||||||||
| Project Number | 55085-001 | ||||||||
| Country / Economy | Sri Lanka |
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| Project Status | Active | ||||||||
| Project Type / Modality of Assistance | Loan |
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| Source of Funding / Amount |
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| Operational Priorities | OP1: Addressing remaining poverty and reducing inequalities OP2: Accelerating progress in gender equality OP3: Tackling climate change, building climate and disaster resilience, and enhancing environmental sustainability OP6: Strengthening governance and institutional capacity OP7: Fostering regional cooperation and integration |
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| Sector / Subsector | Health / Disease control of communicable disease |
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| Gender | Effective gender mainstreaming | ||||||||
| Description | The project will provide the Government of Sri Lanka with immediate and flexible financing to support the national COVID-19 vaccination program through APVAX and the regular country allocation. The APVAX allocation comprises a rapid response component (RRC) to support the purchase of Asian Development Bank (ADB) eligible COVID-19 vaccines, while the project investment component (PIC) financed by the regular country allocation will support strengthening of the vaccination information dissemination and monitoring systems, vaccine transportation capacity, and vaccine-related medical waste management. The project is aligned with the ADB's Strategy 2030 vision for achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, sustainable Asia and the Pacific. The project contributes to addressing remaining nonincome and income poverty and to reducing inequalities, accelerating progress in gender equality, strengthening governance and institutional capacity, fostering regional cooperation and integration, tackling disaster resilience, and enhancing environmental sustainability in Sri Lanka. |
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| Project Rationale and Linkage to Country/Regional Strategy | Sri Lanka is an island with a population of 21.9 million. The country stands on the cusp of being an upper middle-income country. It was reclassified as a lower middle-income country in July 2020 after being an upper middle-income country for a year based on its classification as of July 2019. The economy entered the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 after suffering a series of shocks that slowed growth. The onset of the pandemic came less than 12 months after the April 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks that severely impacted tourism and growth. Prior to that, a constitutional crisis in late 2018 and droughts in 2016 and 2017 also weighed heavily on the economy. Sri Lanka's gross domestic product (GDP) growth has shown a recent downward trend and averaged 3.7% during 2015-2019 compared to 6.8% during 2010-2014 on the back of a peace dividend and rehabilitation after the end of the civil conflict in 2009. The GDP per capita for 2020 was $3,682, down from $3,852 in 2019. Status of the Pandemic. COVID-19 cases were first reported in Sri Lanka in January 2020 and the first wave of COVID-19 was during March-June 2020, the second wave was during September 2020-March 2021, and the ongoing third wave has been going on since 25 April 2021. As of 2 June 2021, Sri Lanka had reported 192,547 confirmed cases and 1,566 deaths. The third wave continues to bring an unprecedented and exponential number of COVID-19 patients to health facilities, with the effective reproduction rate increasing from 0.85 on 1 October 2020 to 1.08 on 2 June 2021. In that period, the number of daily new confirmed cases increased from 0.33 per million people to 135.23 per million people. The reported spread of the new coronavirus variants which are known to be more infectious add to this increasing trend. The Government enforced population-wide and health sector-wide interventions since March 2020 to curtail the spread of the pandemic. To move back towards a sustainable economic growth trajectory from 2021, the Government of Sri Lanka plans to vaccinate 80% of the population as an intervention of utmost priority. |
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| Impact | Resilience and responsiveness of the health system enhanced to curtail the COVID-19 virus spread; reduce morbidity and mortality; and reduce the negative health, social, and economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka. |
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| Project Outcome | |
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| Description of Outcome | Priority populations of Sri Lanka vaccinated against COVID-19 as per the NDVP without compromising routine vaccine service and other health services. |
| Progress Toward Outcome | The project had to undergo several revisions and part of the fund under the L4084-PIC component was cancelled. The first outcome was achieved. It was decided to revise the project DMF during the recent review mission to reflect the actual outcomes of the project. The proposed revisions are ongoing. |
| Implementation Progress | |
| Description of Project Outputs | COVID-19 vaccines delivered. Vaccination information dissemination and monitoring systems strengthened. Capacity of vaccine transport systems expanded Vaccine-related medical waste management strengthened |
| Status of Implementation Progress (Outputs, Activities, and Issues) | 1a) 7.125 million people fully vaccinated from 15 million doses delivered to Central EPI stores and Regional stores under ADB financing.2b) Sex-disaggregated data not available for routine EPI data but available for COVID-19 immunization data. EPI routine program is in the process of including sex disaggregated data as a routine quality strengthening initiative. But this is not completed as yet.2c) More than 5000 participants assisted via mothers-support clubs, of which 90% are women. Activities were supported by other donor and government funds.2a) Functional; Financed from other donor and GOSL funds. The electronic immunization data management system is available with age disaggregated data.3b) This activity (a survey) was not carried out and as the COVD-19 vaccination is now completed and as 82% of the eligible population is now vaccinated this activity can be repurposed. According to Health Promotion Bureau (HPB), UNICEF/World Bank supported formative surveys have confirmed that these groups were reached.3a) Deprioritized. The proposed activity under this output was intended to strengthen the regional and central drug distribution service quality by expanding and improving the pharmaceuticals / vaccines transport across the country by procuring 36 refrigerated trucks. But, MOH had vehicles that can transport drugs currently (many old vehicles, only few are refrigerated, etc.). It was therefore possible to transport vaccine using available transport services.3c) No longer required.The government used available vehicles for vaccine and staff movement and this was not required because the campaign was carried out in a staggered manner area by area and was not made viable across the full country at 2000 centers as envisaged in the NDVP. This had to be rolled out in this manner as vaccine arrival was staggered.4b) The hiring of the design and supervision consultancy for designing sewerage systems has not been initiated.This is required by the government but it is not as urgent as the need for pharmaceuticals and reagents. Therefore, the government will explore alternative ways of managing this issue within the available resources for now and when the economic situation is better by requesting additional resources form ADB or other donors.4a) The DGHS of the MOH has informed ADB in writing that they have received incinerators from UNICEF and that they will not need to utilize these resources and that they were also exploring different ways (not clustered management) of managing the HCW in regions. |
| Geographical Location | Nation-wide |
| Safeguard Categories | |
|---|---|
| Environment | B |
| Involuntary Resettlement | C |
| Indigenous Peoples | C |
| Summary of Environmental and Social Aspects | |
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| Environmental Aspects | |
| Involuntary Resettlement | |
| Indigenous Peoples | |
| Stakeholder Communication, Participation, and Consultation | |
| During Project Design | |
| During Project Implementation | |
| Business Opportunities | |
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| Consulting Services | Individual consultant selection / firm recruitment (CQS) in conformity with ADB's Procurement Policy (2017, as amended from time to time) and the Procurement Regulations for ADB Borrowers, Goods, Works, Non-consulting and Consulting Services (2017, as amended from time to time). |
| Procurement | Direct contracting / OCB / RFQ in conformity with ADB's Procurement Policy (2017, as amended from time to time) and the Procurement Regulations for ADB Borrowers, Goods, Works, Non-consulting and Consulting Services (2017, as amended from time to time). |
| Responsible ADB Officer | Jayasundara, Herathbanda |
| Responsible ADB Department | South Asia Department |
| Responsible ADB Division | Sri Lanka Resident Mission |
| Executing Agencies |
Ministry of Health |
| Timetable | |
|---|---|
| Concept Clearance | 01 Jan 2023 |
| Fact Finding | 01 Mar 2021 to 05 Mar 2021 |
| MRM | 27 May 2021 |
| Approval | 08 Jul 2021 |
| Last Review Mission | - |
| Last PDS Update | 09 Dec 2022 |
Loan 4083-SRI
| Milestones | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Approval | Signing Date | Effectivity Date | Closing | ||
| Original | Revised | Actual | |||
| 08 Jul 2021 | 09 Jul 2021 | 19 Aug 2021 | 31 Dec 2024 | - | - |
| Financing Plan | Loan Utilization | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total (Amount in US$ million) | Date | ADB | Others | Net Percentage | |
| Project Cost | 95.85 | Cumulative Contract Awards | |||
| ADB | 84.00 | 18 May 2023 | 84.00 | 0.00 | 100% |
| Counterpart | 11.85 | Cumulative Disbursements | |||
| Cofinancing | 0.00 | 18 May 2023 | 84.00 | 0.00 | 100% |
| Status of Covenants | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Sector | Safeguards | Social | Financial | Economic | Others |
| Rating | Satisfactory | Satisfactory | Satisfactory | - | - | Satisfactory |
Loan 4084-SRI
| Milestones | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Approval | Signing Date | Effectivity Date | Closing | ||
| Original | Revised | Actual | |||
| 08 Jul 2021 | 09 Jul 2021 | 19 Aug 2021 | 31 Dec 2024 | - | - |
| Financing Plan | Loan Utilization | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total (Amount in US$ million) | Date | ADB | Others | Net Percentage | |
| Project Cost | 66.00 | Cumulative Contract Awards | |||
| ADB | 66.00 | 18 May 2023 | 21.14 | 0.00 | 68% |
| Counterpart | 0.00 | Cumulative Disbursements | |||
| Cofinancing | 0.00 | 18 May 2023 | 21.83 | 0.00 | 70% |
| Status of Covenants | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Sector | Safeguards | Social | Financial | Economic | Others |
| Rating | Satisfactory | Satisfactory | Satisfactory | - | - | Satisfactory |
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ADB and Sri Lanka Sign Loan Agreement for COVID-19 Vaccine Drive
The Asian Development Bank and the Government of Sri Lanka signed loan agreements for $150 million under the Asia Pacific Vaccine Access Facility for the procurement of vaccines and other related consumables.
$150 Million Loan to Help Sri Lanka Purchase COVID-19 Vaccines
The Asian Development Bank has approved a loan of $150 million for Sri Lanka to purchase vaccines against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and improve vaccination information, delivery, and monitoring systems.
Tenders
Contracts Awarded
Procurement Plan
| Title | Document Type | Document Date |
|---|---|---|
| Responsive COVID-19 Vaccines for Recovery Project under the Asia Pacific Vaccine Access Facility: Procurement Plan | Procurement Plans | Jun 2021 |