Africa’s Millenium Development Goals

Reports from the WorldBank indicates that the World Bank Board of Directors on Thursday Feb. 28 approved an International Development Association (IDA) grant for US$70 million to assist the Government of Rwanda with the implementation of key policy actions as outlined in its Economic and Development Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS). This is the Fourth in a series of Rwanda’s 2002 Poverty Reduction Strategy Operation.

The Fourth Poverty Reduction Support Grant (PRSG IV) aims at supporting measures to ease the infrastructure constraints to growth and build the human capital and skills base required to transform the economy to be export based and service oriented.

It will support the Government of Rwanda’s increased focus on growth as outlined in the EDPRS, while consolidating the progress made in the social sectors under the first PRSP.

“We will also continue to use the PRSG series of operations as a means to strengthen collaboration with other donors, working closely with Government, to ensure there is increased coordination of aid to improve its efficient use,” said Kene Ezeminari, World Bank Senior Economist and Country Economist for Rwanda.

PRSG IV resources will also be used to support ongoing reforms to increase the results orientation of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), at both the national and district levels while integrating it more strongly in the budget process.  Overall, the operation will emphasize support for reforms that will promote increased spending efficiency, with the aim of laying the foundation for increased absorption of higher aid inflows to support growth.

“The operation will continue to support Government’s strong political commitment to reforms that promote growth, poverty reduction and improved capacity in planning, public financial management and procurement, ” Kene Ezeminari said.

The grant will build on the successes of Rwanda’s previous Poverty Support Grants (PRSG I, II &III). Within this context PRSG IV is expected to continue offering support to decentralized service delivery, particularly in education, health, and water, and will put an increased emphasis on improving access to infrastructure services (i.e. in the transport and energy sectors, as well as in the agriculture sector). It will support the development of a Common Performance Assessment Framework (CPAF) for monitoring the EDPRS that will also help to reduce the transaction costs to Government related to their reporting on the use of aid funds, to donors. 

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Just got this from EndPoverty, its a good thing for Africa that France is committing about 3.8million dollar to Africa to help get rid of poverty through job creation. 

French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced a 2.5 billion euro (3.8 billion dollar) initiative on Thursday 28/02/08 to finance nearly 2,000 companies and create 300,000 jobs in Africa over the next five years.

“I want France to contribute directly to the creation of African companies that will generate jobs,” he told a joint sitting of the South African parliament on the first leg of a two-day state visit.

“Overall, this initiative will mobilise two-and-a-half billion euros over the five-year period, which will be used to directly or indirectly finance nearly 2,000 companies and create 300,000 jobs.”

The initiative, to be executed by the French Development Agency, would see the creation of a 250-million-euro investment fund that would acquire holdings in other funds, and a 250-million-euro guarantee fund to help small enterprises access bank credit and capital.

The third phase would comprise a two-billion-euro commitment to “support the private sector,” he said.

“When this initiative is included, the total French bilateral financial commitment to sub-Saharan Africa will thus amount to 10 billion euros over the coming five-year period.”

Sarkozy said France should contribute more to the African fight against poverty, adding the country would “maintain its financial commitments” to the continent’s achievement of the Millennium Development Goals which is eradicating extreme poverty and hunger by 2015.

Lets pray the French Government keep to their promise and we expect more commitment from the “rich countries” to help Africa.

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