In Séguéla, Côte d'Ivoire, on December 8, 2013, the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group officially handed over the Worodougou Regional Health Care Centre to the Ivorian Government. The Centre hospitalier régional (CHR) has recently been rehabilitated by the AfDB at a total cost of 416,300,000 CFA francs (around $863,000). The hospital will provide services to around 500,000 persons.
The Séguéla CHR covers the health districts of Worodougou and Béré. The hospital has been entirely rehabilitated and equipped thanks to a gift from the African Development Fund (ADF). It boasts a radiology suite and obstetric surgery provision with the very latest equipment, totalling 110 million CFA francs (approximately $228,000).
The Séguéla CHR belongs to a group of 32 health care establishments that have been rehabilitated and equipped by the Post-Crisis Multi-Sector Institutional Support Project (PAIMSC). Ongoing training has been delivered to staff of these establishments at various levels in the health care chain. It will enable them to provide high-quality services to around half a million persons living in the region. The health care training was conducted in areas of the Central-North-West. Around one and a half million persons there will benefit from the AfDB project. The total cost of investments is 2,740 million CFA francs (roughly $5,680,000).
The PAIMSC was approved by the Ivorian authorities during the crisis. It is contributing to restoring State authority and public services operations in the fields of education, health and rural development in the Central-North-West area. Furthermore, the PAIMSC is participating in capacity strengthening for public bodies and civil society organizations in taking responsibility for urgent matters and for relaunching the economy.
The hand-over ceremony for the Séguéla CHR is part of the PAIMSC implementation framework. It took place in the presence of the Ivorian Prime Minister, Daniel Kablan Duncan. "The PAIMSC has contributed to the reunification of the country, to the consolidation of social cohesion, and to the creation of an economic and health-care framework that offers security to the populations of the former Central, North and West areas of Côte d'Ivoire," said Duncan.
In July 2013, the AfDB received a Development Impact Award from the US Treasury for the gender component of the PAIMSC, which deals with gender-based violence.
The ceremony was also attended by the Minister of State and Minister of the Interior and Security, Ahmed Bakayoko; by the Minister of Health and the Fight against AIDS, Raymonde Goudou Coffie; by AfDB representative Paul Dougna, the project leader; and by local and religious leaders.
