Page 23 - GEORptApr21

EU and WHO in
€40mn effort to assist Eastern Partnership countries with COVID-19 vaccines
Of the additional framework headroom, $373mn will come from the development bank’s ordinary resources, with an equivalent of up to $124mn of concessional financing provided by the GCF.
The programme, worth $1.4bn in all, benefits from GCF support amounting to $378mn, out of which $344mn is concessional co-funding and $34mn is grants for technical assistance. Other donors supporting the programme include the GCF, the European Union, the Republic of Korea, Austria, Luxembourg, Japan and Turkey.
As of end-2020, GCF GEFF products had been launched in eight countries in partnership with 18 local financial institutions, and had supported over 500 green investments, the EBRD said.
The EBRD’s Green Energy Financing Facilities (GEFF) provide credit lines to open up new financing paths and new markets of sustainable development for people pursuing climate investments, and addressing the barriers women face, the lender said, noting that the GEFF is a cornerstone of the EBRD’s ambitious aim to become a majority green investor by 2025.
The GCF was set up by 194 countries, which are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2010 to deliver equal amounts of funding to mitigation and adaptation initiatives in developing countries.
The GCF-EBRD’s partnership for transformation has seen the GCF support six EBRD programmes with $830mn, catalysing more than $3.6bn in total project value, the EBRD said. The GCF is the largest climate fund in the world, supporting the efforts of developing countries to respond to the challenge of climate change, it added.
The European Union (EU) and the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe will draw on a €40mn budget in a three-year effort at supporting the deployment of coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines and vaccination in the six EU Eastern Partnership countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
The project, funded by the EU and implemented by the Regional Office, will cover all phases—constituting “end-to-end” support—of COVID-19 vaccine deployment and vaccination, the two organisations said on February 11. “It will also serve as a major investment to strengthen routine immunization systems in the six countries,” they said in an announcement.
The project amounts to the largest EU and WHO joint action ever implemented in the European Region.
Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, said: “Successful vaccination requires much more than vaccine development and dissemination. This comprehensive ‘end-to-end’ initiative, generously supported by the European Union, will allow the WHO Regional Office for Europe to ensure that Eastern Partnership countries are well prepared, immunization systems are in place, and personnel are trained to deliver the precious COVID-19 vaccines to those who need them most.
“And the work does not end there. Monitoring of uptake and vaccine safety must continue as more vaccines are rolled out across populations. All of us have a responsibility to make sure that no country is left behind in this complex
23 GEORGIA Country Report April 2021 www.intellinews.com