World Bank helps Albania’s poor health system

TIRANA, June 20 – The World Bank signed an agreement with Albania to assist its Social Sector Reform Development Policy Loan (DPL) with $25 million.
The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors had approved the project in April.
The loan supports reforms to help Albania improve the effectiveness of its social safety nets, and enhance the efficiency and equity of health financing.
These reforms were approved by the Albanian parliament earlier this year.
Such reforms support policies that strengthen the mechanisms to allocate funds and select beneficiaries in the main social assistance program; introduce incentives for investing in human capital by providing an additional benefit linked to school enrolment and attendance for families with school age children; initiate the process to create a unified registry of beneficiaries of social assistance programs; and change the indexation formula of the disability benefits program.
It also supports measures to enhance the efficiency and equity of health spending, by introducing more predictable fiscal rules to finance health; improve the methods for contracting with providers and the capacity to monitor their performance; and grant health insurance coverage to social assistance beneficiaries.
Daniel Dulitzky, the sector manager and the project leader, said that “In the social safety nets, the aim is to improve equity, efficiency, transparency, and effectiveness in the use of resources for poverty reduction, while in the health financing sector, the objective of the reform is to increase access for vulnerable groups, improve efficiency in service provision, and enhance transparency in the financing of the sector.”
Albania has been a member of the World Bank since 1991. Since then, 69 projects totalling $1.4 billion have been supported by IDA and IBRD, and 10 projects totalling $185 million by IFC. Currently in Albania, there are 15 active projects in the social sector, health, education, natural resources, water and energy, municipal infrastructure, and public sector management. These projected will help Albania achieve sustainable economic and social development and pave the way for European integration.