Tackling polio: ECNEC clears Rs33b eradication plan

Approval comes in wake of discovery of eight new cases

ISLAMABAD:

The federal government on Friday approved a Rs33 billion emergency plan for polio eradication.

The plan, which aims to boost efforts to eradicate the crippling virus, was approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) in a meeting chaired by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar. The body also cleared the Rs27.8 billion, 128-megawatt Keyal Khwar Hydropower Project.

The Emergency Plan for Polio Eradication will be implemented all over the country, including the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

As part of the plan, the United Nations Children’s Fund will procure oral polio vaccines and carry out social mobilisation and communication campaigns at the district and sub-district levels on behalf of provincial and district governments, a handout issued by the finance ministry said. The World Health Organisation, meanwhile, will conduct operational activities and carry out supplementary immunisation activities on behalf of Pakistani authorities, it added.

The project has a total capital cost of $326.84 million or Rs33.2 billion. The Islamic Development Bank will provide a loan of $227 million, the World Bank will offer a $23.6 million loan and Japan International Cooperation Agency will give a grant of $8.1 million, according to the finance ministry. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will give a grant of $68.2 million to pick up the interest cost of the loan, but this assistance will be subject to the government’s ability to expand the coverage of polio campaign.

ECNEC approved the plan at a time when polio cases in Pakistan are increasing at an alarming rate due to lack of coverage and a peculiar law and order situation in the tribal areas. With the emergence of eight new polio cases on Wednesday and Thursday, the total number of confirmed cases in Pakistan has increased to 146 – the highest among the nine countries struggling to cope with the disease.

As many as 93 confirmed polio cases were reported in Pakistan last year, but Somalia led the 2013 count with 194 cases, according to the website of Global Polio Eradication Initiative. However, only five confirmed cases have been reported in Somalia this year so far.

While addressing the ECNEC meeting, Finance Minister Dar said that although financing health services was the responsibility of the provincial governments, the federal government felt itself responsible for arranging the finances needed for the project.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 13^th, 2014.