World Bank approves $300 mln to support Ethiopia’s conflict-affected communities
The World Bank has approved a $300 million International Development Association (IDA) grant to support the recovery of conflict-affected communities in Ethiopia.
The grant will finance a Response-Recovery-Resilience for Conflict-Affected Communities in Ethiopia Project, which targets to reach out more than five million people.
The project will support efforts to address the immediate needs of communities, rehabilitate/recover infrastructure destroyed by conflict, and increase community resilience to the impacts of conflict in a sustainable manner.
Specifically, the project will help to improve access to basic services, as well as rebuild climate-resilient infrastructure, prioritized by communities, the World Bank said in a statement.
To urgently meet the needs of conflict-affected communities, mobile units will be dispatched to provide key services including in the areas of education, health, water, and sanitation.
WB’s project has a national geographic scope, initially prioritizing support to the Afar, Amhara, Benishangul-Gumuz, Oromia, and Tigray regions, which have been highly impacted by the recent conflict and host large numbers of internally displaced peoples (IDPs).
The project will also provide Gender Based Violence (GBV) survivors with improved access to the services and comprehensive care needed to recover from the impacts of the violence they experienced.
Furthermore, it will support prevention interventions to address the underlying norms and dynamics that perpetuate GBV.
“Survivors of gender-based violence suffer devastating effects to their physical and mental health. In conflict-affected areas, they are unable to get the support they need to recover from trauma and be able to move forward,” said Ousmane Dione, World Bank Country Director for Eritrea, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Sudan.
He added: “This project will help to improve access to health, psychosocial support, and legal services for GBV survivors in conflict-affected regions where quality response services are limited”.
