World Bank intensifies Ivory Coast sponsorship
17/06/2008
The World Bank has approved three new grants for the Ivory Coast, totalling some $127 million (£65 million) in additional funding.
According to Antonella Bassani, acting World Bank director for the country, the new funding packages will be spread evenly across a range of humanitarian and development agendas.
These include the HIV/Aids crisis, urban infrastructure projects, economic governance initiatives and crisis recovery efforts in relation to the country's post-conflict reconstruction.
The Ivory Coast had until recently been hailed as a relative beacon of stability in Africa, but in 2002 it slipped into the throes of an armed rebellion centring on the country's northern Muslim population.
Outlining the World Bank's plan for a more peaceful and prosperous future in the country, Ms Bassani said that her organisation's financial sponsorship would be an important step towards development.
She commented: "This additional support from the World Bank is the expression of our institution's commitment to assist Cote d'Ivoire (the Ivory Coast) to address the many reconstruction challenges and especially assist populations most affected by the crisis to have access to basic social services like water, sanitation, and health care."
Daniel Sellen, acting World Bank manager for the country, added: "These three grants are targeted at strategic sectors selected in partnership with the government. Improvements in governance, HIV/Aids control and infrastructure development are expected to have broad-based impacts on poverty reduction"
The three grants are the Emergency Urban Infrastructure Project ($94 million); the Emergency Multilateral HIV/Aids Control Project ($20 million); and the Governance and Institutional Development Support Project ($13 million).
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