Uganda has been awarded a 150 million dollar credit from the World Bank, the first beneficiary of a new program designed specifically to combat poverty, the Bank announced here Friday.
It said the World Bank's board of directors approved a "poverty reduction support credit" for the east African country on Thursday to support the implementation of programs outlined in its poverty reduction strategy paper.
Uganda is one of four low-income countries to have drafted such a document and the first to receive Bank funding to put it into effect.
The funds will go specifically to improve the allocation of public resources and their financial management and to expand access to quality health care, education and sanitation services.
"The credit will provide support to areas where the Bank has a comparative advantage and to policy and institutional reform measures which have the highest poverty impact," said World Bank team leader Ritva Reinikka.
Uganda, where economic growth over the last decade has been described by the Bank as "impressive," was among the first countries to benefit from a debt relief initiative sponsored by the Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
The program offers relief to countries that adhere to an IMF program of market-oriented economic reforms.
The Bank estimates that despite overall progress in Uganda in the 1990s, 35 percent of the population lives in poverty. |
