Rocío Medina-Bolívar, country representative for Trinidad and Tobago at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), talks to The Energy Year about how the bank is supporting countries through the Covid-19 pandemic. The IDB funds and supports the development of major infrastructure projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. It also conducts research and provides policy advice, technical assistance and training to public- and private-sector clients.
What is your message to the people of Trinidad and Tobago during this pandemic?
The IDB Group stands in solidarity with the government and people of Trinidad and Tobago during this critical time, as a committed development partner. In collaboration with the technical leadership of the World Health Organization, the Pan American Health Organization and the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), the IDB will continue to co-ordinate with its member countries and other multilateral institutions to ensure a proper response to the pandemic.
In Trinidad and Tobago, the IDB is working closely with its public-sector counterparts to programme and fast-track approval of the necessary resources to address Covid-19 and its economic and social implications. For instance, with close co-ordination with the Ministry of Health and Regional Health Authorities, the IDB is already supporting the procurement of urgent items such as equipment, supplies and key hospital personnel.
Are you seeing examples of companies rising to the challenge of beating the virus?
In the case of IDB Lab, our innovation lab for the IDB Group, it launched a challenge for health technology solutions that could be rapidly prototyped. Of the 500 solutions submitted to the challenge, one from Trinidad and Tobago was approved for prototype funding via a very competitive process where 11 were selected for financing.
The company is a start-up called MEDL that will launch an integrated prescription fulfilment system designed to dispense prescribed drugs from an online prescription, entered by a doctor, to the patient’s door and it provides support to patients to improve medication compliance by managing refills.
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