• World Bank approves $201 million IDA grant to strengthen Mozambique’s health emergency preparedness.

• Project targets underserved, climate-vulnerable areas with investments in staff, infrastructure, and surveillance.

• Mozambique’s health system faces growing risks from climate change, floods, and epidemics.

Mozambique is taking a major step to strengthen its health system against crises worsened by climate change, with a new $201 million grant-backed project approved by the World Bank. The initiative, announced on June 26, 2025, will support Mozambique’s Health Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Resilience Project over five years, until September 2030.

Funded through the International Development Association (IDA), the project aims to reinforce Mozambique’s capacity to deliver essential health services equitably and continuously even during emergencies such as floods, cyclones, or epidemics. It prioritizes underserved and climate-vulnerable regions by focusing investments on human resources, health infrastructure, and core health systems.

"By prioritizing practical investments in the foundational pillars of the health sector, the Government of Mozambique is driving greater efficiency across the system and strengthening its emergency response capacity to protect lives,” said João Pires, World Bank Senior Health Specialist and Task Team Leader. “These efforts are paving the way for bold reforms to ensure the health system remains resilient and responsive, even under pressure.”

Key measures include improving staff training in high-risk areas, securing supply chains to guarantee the availability of essential medicines during crises, and developing surveillance and laboratory capacities to rapidly detect and respond to emerging epidemics.

This initiative comes as Mozambique continues to face regular and severe natural disasters floods, cyclones, and epidemics that repeatedly disrupt health services and jeopardize the lives of vulnerable communities. Many regions remain deprived of qualified health personnel, reliable access to basic medicines, and effective tools for detecting and managing health emergencies.

The government has been working to overcome these challenges through ongoing reforms, including the recently launched Health Sector Strategic Plan (PESS) 2025–2034, which succeeds the 2020–2024 plan. In parallel, the World Bank and other development partners increased support to Mozambique’s health sector, notably with a $115 million allocation in 2024 aimed at improving access to quality primary care for around 4.6 million people particularly women, children, and adolescents and strengthening service delivery at the local, district, and community levels.

This article was initially published in French by Ingrid Haffiny (Intern)

Edited in English by Ange Jason Quenum