The Government of Zimbabwe through the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MOHCC) received funding from the World Bank for the COVID-19 Emergency Response Project (ZCERP). The project aims to help Zimbabwe immediately respond and mitigate the risks associated with COVID-19 outbreak and strengthen the national health systems for preparedness and response. The ZCERP aims to prevent, detect, and respond to the threat posed by COVID-19 and strengthen national systems for public health preparedness.
Part of the funding will be used to support complementary strategic activities to facilitate the implementation of the COVID-19 National Vaccine Deployment Plan, focusing on climate friendly health system strengthening activities that support vaccine deployment and including installation and maintenance of solar energy in health facilities. To this end twenty-nine (29) health facilities in three provinces that is: Masvingo (10), Midlands (9) and Matabeleland North (10) have been targeted for installation of solar energy.
A call for Expression of Interest (EOI), was issued and different companies submitted their bids indicating their preferred institutions to undertake the proposed works. Site visits with prospective suppliers were done from April 24 to 30, 2023 to enable the prospective suppliers to conduct physical assessment of the proposed works and come up costed bill of quantities or quotations.
A team from the MOHCC (Hospital Planning and Projects Management), Public Works Department (PWD) and Cordaid together with the suppliers visited all the sites for assessments.
The next steps will involve finalisation of the bidding process and awarding of tenders for suppliers to start installation of the solar systems. The exercise is anticipated to be complete by August 2023.
