Focus on improving affordability, expanding geographic reach, and expanding service coverage
Washington, April 18, 2024 —The World Bank Group today announced an ambitious plan to help countries provide quality and affordable health services to 1.5 billion people by 2030. This is part of a larger global effort to provide basic standards of care throughout all stages of a person's life—infancy, early childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.
For decades, the World Bank Group has supported the delivery of health services to women and children in more than 100 countries. Efforts focused on speeding up, improving collaboration with partners, and bringing in the private sector have enabled the 80-year-old agency to pursue greater scale and impact.
Our strategy to reach 1.5 billion people focuses on three core elements:
- Expanding the focus from maternal and child health to lifelong coverage, including non-communicable diseases.
- We are expanding our operations to areas that are difficult to access, such as remote villages, cities, and countries.
- Work with governments to reduce unnecessary fees and other economic barriers to health care.
To count toward this goal, you must be seen and treated by a health care professional, either in person or via telemedicine.
“Providing people with a basic standard of care throughout their lives is critical to development.” Said Ajay Banga President of the World Bank Group. “This ambition cannot be realized by a single effort. It will require partners, a coalition of public and private sectors working together to expand access to health services.”
Approximately 2 billion people currently face severe financial hardship paying for health care services. The intertwining challenges of climate change, pandemics, conflict, aging societies, and a predicted shortage of 10 million health workers by 2030 are exacerbating cycles of poverty and inequality.
The World Bank Group will address this challenge with a combination of finance, knowledge and partnerships.
All elements of the Bank's lending capacity are tailored to meet a country's unique needs and stage of development to reach 1.5 billion people.
For countries most in need, IDA financing allows them to bring health workers to areas where people lack access to services. In middle-income countries, IBRD deploys funding to encourage government investments in health and regulation that move countries forward.
Having regulatory certainty and reliable governance in place opens the door to more private sector investment, particularly in local production of medicines and protective equipment.
Strong partnerships are essential to the World Bank Group's success in health. The World Bank Group will be inadequate if it does not work faster and better in partnership with nongovernmental organizations, the private sector, and civil society. The World Bank Group welcomes Japan's announcement to launch a Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Knowledge Hub to strengthen the capacity of ministries of health and finance. This is an initiative supported by the World Bank and the World Health Organization.
The goal of providing quality and affordable health services to 1.5 billion people by 2030 is one of the latest examples of the World Bank Group's commitment to becoming more impact-focused and building better banks. It is a byproduct of a concerted effort to
For more information, please visit and follow www.worldbank.org/en/topic/health. @WBG_health
Press release number: 2024/061/HD
contact address
in washington
alexandra hum
ahumme@worldbank.org
