|
ETHIOPIA GETS INTERIM ASSISTANCE FROM THE WORLD BANK
STORY: DANIEL OWUSU FRIMPONG
World Bank Group Board has approved an interim country assistance strategy for Ethiopia, emphasizing improved governance and growth. The plan includes an immediate program to preserve the delivery Of basic services to the population through grants to local governments.
The board’s decision follows a period of intensive consultation with Ethiopia’s international partners and with various actors within the country’s political economy. The plan comes at a critical time for Ethiopia. A period where contested elections in 2005 were followed by public protests, mass arrests, and an increasingly polarized climate that created continuing risks for the country’s development agenda. The World Bank and other donors suspended direct budget support Once the political impasse set in, but agreed to press for improved governance, including greater civic participation, while protecting critical services in health, education, agriculture and access to safe water.
The interim strategy, which covers a period of the next fourteen months, carries clear expectations for performance at the country level. The Bank would assess Ethiopia’s progress on strengthening governance, and, if there are measurable improvements, would prepare a full three-year strategy envisioning scaled-up levels of assistance. However, if governance conditions deteriorate, the Bank would reduce aid over time.
A major component of the plan is the $215 million Protection of Basic Services Program to support local governments in providing the population essential services, while strengthening measures to ensure transparency and local accountability in the delivery of those services.
“The program approved by the World Bank board, and supported by Britain and the other donors, reflects a determination to protect the country’s poorest citizens from unnecessary setbacks flowing from the contested elections and the ensuing period of political uncertainty”, said Ishac Diwan, World Bank Country Director for Ethiopia and Sudan. He said that Ethiopia has registered real progress in providing services to the poor, and in advancing the Millennium Development Goals.
The World Bank group would want to prevent a backsliding-- while stepping up the work on governance.
|
