What you should know about the $600 million World Bank package for Burundi
RegionWeek Newsletter Vol III, Issue #121 | Tuesday, September 8, 2020
This is a new version of the RegionWeek Newsletter for the 3rd season( July-December 2020). The content targets Business leaders, Decision-makers, and Young professionals with interests in Burundi and East Africa. Subscribe to stay productive, and competitive in a pandemic and disrupted season.
Dear Readers,
This Tuesday, President Evariste Ndayishimiye received, at the Presidential Palace of Gitega, Mrs. Véronique Kabongo, the Resident Representative of the World Bank Group.
On the menu of discussions between the Head of State and the Resident Representative of the World Bank were the priorities of the new government. President Ndayishimiye invited the World Bank to cooperate with the government in developing the socio-economic sector.
"We have already passed the period of conflicts, currently we are focusing on socio-economic development," said the Head of State.
Véronique Kabongo reaffirmed that the World Bank will support flagship government projects with a package of US $600 million over the next three years.
In February, the World Bank Board of Executive Directors approved two grants for a total of $160 million from the International Development Association (IDA) to help improve essential services through solar power and local development in rural and remote areas of Burundi. With a per capita GDP estimated at $260 in 2019 reports, household survey data show that most Burundians—72 percent, 8.3 million people—live in poverty, with higher poverty incidence in rural areas.
Covid-19 Response
The latest project that the World Bank approved in April 2020 is the $5 million “Burundi COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Project”. It aims to prevent, detect, and respond to the threat posed by COVID-19 and strengthen national systems for public health preparedness in Burundi.
The project is set to support equipment of identified COVID-19 isolation and treatment centers, strengthen the capacity of health staff particularly in the 21 identified priority districts, provide drugs and equipment for treatment centers, provide materials and equipment to treat severe respiratory distress, support identification, and equipment of units for severe cases treatment in referral hospitals and support review standard operating procedures.
Burundi scored only 33 percent in contrast to Rwanda (59 percent), Uganda (56 percent), and Tanzania (48 percent) on the most recent WHO supported Joint External Evaluation (JEE) that assesses a country capacity to prevent, detect and respond to outbreaks.
The Government of Burundi has developed a National COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Plan, updated on March 27, 2020, for a total cost of $25.9 million for a 6-month response. The plan follows WHO guidance, technically supported by specialized international agencies, and focuses on scaling-up and strengthening aspects of coordination, surveillance, case management, communication, and social mobilization, psychosocial as well as logistics and safety.
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Worldbank Group Partnership Framework for Burundi
The Partnership Framework for Burundi (known as Country Partnership Framework) is aligned with the World Bank Group Strategy for Africa that aims to create sustainable and inclusive growth, strengthen human capital, and build resilience to fragility and climate change with a focus on human development outcomes especially for the most vulnerable and by building economic and social resilience.
From 2019 to 2023 the Partnership Framework for Burundi expects to achieve an enhanced coverage of safety nets to 1 million of the poorest population in Burundi. It targets 1 million women and children under two who will receive basic nutrition services.
In Education, over 25,000 teachers will be trained and 7 million textbooks developed, printed, and distributed with the aim to achieve a pupil-textbook ratio of 1: 1. For the agriculture sector, it aims at a 16 percent increase in land productivity, targeted to degraded landscapes. With the goal to reach 1 million beneficiaries of climate-smart, nutritious food production.
For the energy sector, the goal is to double energy generation capacity from 55 to 100 MW and expand the size of beneficiaries by facilitating access to off-grid solar energy to rural communities, including health centers, public schools, training centers, and markets.
According to the World Bank, Burundi needs to achieve significantly higher sustainable growth rates to generate more jobs for faster poverty reduction. The prospects for sustained growth have been clouded by conflict, cyclical and structural weaknesses which maintain the economy in a low-level equilibrium, limit per capita revenue, and impede poverty reduction.
Thanks for reading
Fabrice Iranzi, RegionWeek.com
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