Colombia will Improve its Primary Health Care for Vulnerable Populations

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) approved a loan of $150 million and non-refundable financing of $7.5 million to improve effective access to health services for the vulnerable population in Colombia by strengthening primary health care.

The financing, approved by the IDB Board of Executive Directors, will contribute to expanding insurance coverage and improving effective access to health services for the vulnerable population, with an emphasis on migrants. To evaluate the implementation of response plans for the migrant population, the project will create territorial health panels.

The initiative will strengthen the primary health care model, increasing quality services, as well as prevention and promotion schemes, with emphasis on people with disabilities, indigenous communities, and people with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. To achieve this, the project will carry out a diagnosis of the functioning of the Primary Health Care Centers in prioritized territories. Likewise, the initiative will include efforts to increase first-level services responsible for the early detection of chronic non-communicable diseases. Also, the projects featured the improvement of the first level of care infrastructure and the creation of primary health teams.

In addition, the operation will support the development of the health information system to guarantee the quality, production, and efficient use of clinical information. The program will include technical assistance for training territorial entities, updating interoperability standards guides, and a survey to measure the state of health information technologies.

The operation was prepared jointly with the World Bank, which enabled each program to be articulated comprehensively, maximizing the country's benefits.

The IDB loan of $150 million has a disbursement period of three years, a grace period of six years, a repayment period of 19 years, and an interest rate based on SOFR.