The bill on the ratification by the Republic of Burundi of the financing agreement N° D 9640-BI and the International Development Association in favour of the project of preparation and response to covid-19 in Burundi - Additional funding, signed in Bujumbura on January 28, 2022, was voted unanimously by the deputies present at the Kigobe Congress Palace on April 13, 2022.

According to the Minister of Public Health and AIDS Fight, Dr. Sylvie Nzeyimana, this additional funding for the covid-19 project, which costs 60,000,000 US dollars, follows the funding of 5,000,000 US dollars for a duration of 12 months (July 2020 to 30 June 2021) and extended until 30 September 2021, with a budget execution rate of 99.4 0/0 at the end of the project.
In view of the fact that some of the activities in the initial funding had not been carried out because of the shortfall in the budget due to the high cost of acquiring equipment and materials for the care of patients, and following the updating of a new response plan validated in September 2021, which includes a component on vaccination against covid-19, the Government of Burundi has requested a funding grant from the World Bank to help to finance other activities included in the new response plan.

This additional funding will therefore support the Government of Burundi’s efforts to further strengthen its response to the covid-19 pandemic by purchasing vaccines and supporting the procurement of supplies for the diagnosis and management of covid 19. In addition, these funds will allow for the acquisition of 50 nontransporting EMS vehicles, 30 X-ray machines and 10 beds for every communal hospital.
The development purposes of this project are to prevent, detect and respond to the threat posed by Covid-19 and to strengthen national public health systems for epidemic preparedness in the country.
This proposed funding has agitated the plenary which wrongly assumed that the funding will be for vaccines valued at 2,400,000 doses. This situation is worrying for several reasons.

First, other vaccines remain in stock. Isn’t there any risk that importing new vaccines will lead to their expiration?
Secondly, the national policy was based on prevention, which has had an impact. Is the country not adopting the methods of other countries by opting for vaccines when we know that covid-19 has many variants?
Of the 60,000,000 US dollars, Dr. Sylvie Nzeyimana reassured, only 20,000,000 are allocated to vaccines that will be imported in series. Moreover, this amount of 20,000,000 US dollars is likely to be reallocated in other areas of health. Otherwise, the government’s policy in the fight against covid-19 remains prevention coupled with a voluntary system for those who want to be vaccinated. For those who advocated for the renegotiation of the funding, this is an irrelevance as the US$40,000,000 will be used for health systems reinforcement at the national level.