admin Ethiopia received good news on Friday, as the World Bank has agreed to provide the country a whopping US $715 million in grants and loans. This comes as an aid to combat the aftermath of drought and a devastating conflict.
Numerous international partners have stopped their aid since November 2020 when the war between the federal government and rebels in the Tigray region began. Since then, the country is facing a deep humanitarian crisis. Fighting that erupted in the northern region of Tigray in November 2020, and spilled over into neighbouring Afar and Amhara last year, has eased since a unilateral ceasefire by the federal government in March.
The Ethiopian finance ministry, in a statement, announced the signing with the World Bank of a “financing agreement”. It involves “US$600 million (US$200 million in form of grant and US$400 million in form of credit), for the sole purpose of implementation of Food Systems Resilience programme”. Services that stand to benefit are education, health, water supply and a special effort to support survivors of gender-based violence in conflict hit areas, it said.
These funds “will be utilised to finance the improvement of the resilience of food systems and food insecurity preparedness”, the ministry claimed. The agreement is then set to provide grant funding of US$115 million for a Horn of Africa pastoral economies project. This project will “help the region to adapt to the impacts brought about by the changing climate, help pastoralist communities by commercialising livestock production, and ensure that the marginalised and vulnerable groups, such as women, are properly included in the sector,” the ministry said.
A few observers have noted a connection between the funding and the Ethiopian government’s recent announcement of a “humanitarian truce”. This announcement comes after it had been called for by Washington. Abiy Ahmed, Prime Minister of Ethiopia, on June 19 announced that a committee was currently studying the possibilities of entering peace negotiations with the rebel group called Tigray People’s Liberation Front. In April, the World Bank gave Ethiopia a US$300 million grant to help communities that have been affected by the conflict.
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