Ethiopian Review

Addis Ababa – The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved on Friday 540 million US dollar in International Development Association (IDA) funding for the Protection of Basic Services (PBS) Program Phase II Project for Ethiopia.

In a press statement sent to Ethiopian News Agency, The World Bank said PBS has complemented government resources to improve the decentralized delivery of basic services in five sectors; education, health, agriculture, water and sanitation, and rural roads since 2006.

In the second 3-year phase, the Ethiopian government is expected to allocate approximately 700 million US dollar, while 12 donor partners, including the IDA, plan to provide an additional 400 million US dollar a year.

The statement said Ethiopia has made significant progress in improving social indicators and reducing poverty over the past two decades, The Bank said in the statement.

The statement said that in 1991, only one in five primary school children were in school, one in five children died before reaching their fifth birthday and one in ten before their first birthday. Maternal mortality was a staggering 1,400 deaths per 100,000 live births, the statement said.

Today, the statement said, prospects for the country that is home to 77 million people have improved significantly; grade 5 primary completion rates have risen to 69 percent, up 43 percent from two decades ago; net primary enrollment rates have quadrupled to 83 percent in 2008; and under-5 child, infant and maternal mortality rates have fallen by almost forty percent by 2005.

However, the Ethiopian government claimed to have achieved more than the aforementioned figures. According to the government, net primary enrollment rates reached over 95 percent or so.

The bank said access to safe drinking water has improved from 19 percent in 1991 to 52.5 percent by 2007.

In the last few years, the IDA funding for the Protection of Basic Services Program has contributed to accelerating the encouraging trends.

“This expansion in basic services has been especially beneficial for the poor, most of whom live in rural areas. With the strong commitment of the Government of Ethiopia and with the help of this progress, attainment of several of the Millennium Development Goals is no longer a distant possibility for Ethiopia”, said Trina Haque and Sunil Rajkumar, the Bank’s Task Team Leaders for the project.

Underscoring that the operation emphasizes the value of local level transparency and accountability to deliver better basic services, Haque and Rajkumar added.

PBS II is supported by eleven other development partners, including the African Development Bank, the Governments of Austria, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, CIDA (Canada), DFID (UK), KFW (Germany) and the European Commission.

“PBS is a shared commitment by Ethiopia and 12 donors to protecting the financing of basic services, but this ‘compact’ also creates the process through which donor partners and Ethiopia engage in serious dialogue on how to improve the access and the quality of basic services, and to monitor the outcomes,” said Ken Ohashi, the Bank’s Country Director for Ethiopia and Sudan.

- ENA