| Polio continued to be a public health problem in Nigeria, one of the four remaining countries in the world. The eradication of this deadly disease is largely depend on interruption of transmission of wild polio virus in these countries particularly, Nigeria. In recent years, Nigeria exported wild polio virus beyond its territories to other African countries. This affected severely global polio eradication initiative and costs huge money and effort to contain the virus in these countries. The Government of Nigeria and global partners continued engagement with fund and technical support resulted in marked reduction in wild polio cases in Nigeria in 2009. Only three cases have been reported in April 2010 (99 percent drop compared to 2009).
World Bank, Nigeria supported the program since 2003 with additional resources and made funds available for vaccine procurement and supplementary immunization activities through Nigeria Partnership for Polio Eradication Project. Between 2003 and 2009, World Bank provided US$133 million for polio eradication activities in Nigeria through the Partnership for Polio Eradication Project (PPEP). The project was designed by the World Bank to help finance polio eradication in Nigeria in partnerships. The fund was made available through “the IDA Buy-down mechanism” by an agreement between IDA and, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). The donor provided fund to an IDA-administered fund: the Polio Eradication Trust Fund that will buy-down the debt incurred by recipient upon successful completion of the project after determination by an independent performance audit.
In order to trigger IDA-buy down a performance audit is called so that decision on the buy-down can be made. The performance audit will determine if the IDA funds achieved their intended results against agreed indicators. If the performance audit evaluates the project as satisfactory, the IDA buy-down will be triggered and earmarked funds in the trust fund will be used to pay off the IDA credit. IDA will in turn cancel this credit and release the recipient from any future liability. In case the project is evaluated as unsatisfactory, the recipient will remain obligated to pay back IDA on the terms of the credit and the trust fund buy-down will not be triggered. The assessment is funded under Trust Funds: TF051533-GATES/WB PARTNERSHIP: PARTNERSHIP INVESTMENTS FOR POLIO ERADICTION. Public Health Services and Solutions, an international health consulting firm has been awarded to conduct the audit.
Objective
The objective of the performance audit is to determine if the IDA funds achieved the intended results against agreed indicators under the Nigeria Partnership for Polio Eradication Project. The achievement will be measured by two indicators:
- Timely arrival at national level of OPV procured through UNICEF (vaccines arrive at least 3 weeks before the SIA in the national strategic store in Abuja).
- Immunization coverage of SIA (immunization coverage of OPV is at least 80 percent in each endemic state)
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