Ethiopia, World Bank Sign $500m Grant Agreement

Addis Ababa, June 15, 2019 (FBC) – Ethiopia and the World Bank signed a $500 million grant agreement today, June 15, 2019.

Ahmed Shide, Ethiopia’s Minister of Finance, and Ms. Carolyn Turk, World Bank Country Director for Ethiopia, signed the agreement at a ceremony held at the Ministry of Finance.

The grant will be used to finance the implementation of climate action through landscape management program, a program aimed at increasing adoption of sustainable land management practices and expanding access to secure land tenure in non-rangeland rural areas of the country.

The program is a 5-year sectoral budget support program with a results-based approach, according to the Ministry of Finance

It will support the government to scale up participatory watershed and land management activities in order to reduce land degradation and rural land tenure security.

The program will make consideration for the equitable inclusion of all beneficiaries in the watershed users associations, including vulnerable groups such as landless, youth, elderly, and female-headed households.

The program also provides a mechanism to incentivize the roll-out of institutional reforms for participatory watershed management and land administration.

FBC