WASHINGTON, July 31, 2020 – The World Bank Board of Directors approved today a $70 million grant from the International Development Association (IDA) to support Mauritania in strengthening the response to the pandemic.

The Mauritania COVID-19 Emergency Development Policy Operation (DPO) aims to protect the poor and most vulnerable and lay the foundation for recovery by supporting Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and improving debt transparency. The budget support operation is aligned with the priorities of the Multisectoral Response Plan to COVID-19 developed by the government and the World Bank’s Country Partnership Framework FY18-FY23.

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In an outbreak of infectious disease, speed of response is crucial—every day of delay allows the virus to spread further. But you can’t react effectively to a virus if you can’t detect it.

The discovery of Mauritania’s first COVID-19 case was essentially by chance: a European living in the country isolated himself and sought testing after a recent close contact tested positive. The government was conducting little to no disease surveillance of its own; as in many other countries, there was scarce funding to hire new public health personnel for testing, interviewing and tracing the contacts of people found to be infected with COVID-19.

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