The International Development Association (IDA) is an international financial institution which offers concessional loans and grants to developing countries.
It is also a member of the World Bank Group. The Association assists developing countries which suffer from the lowest gross national income, troubled creditworthiness, or the lowest per capita income to carryout various development activities and stimulate growth.
Every three years, IDA conducts a meeting with the aim to replenish World Bank-IDA resources and review its policy framework. On top of this, the 19th IDA Second Replenishment Conference was recently conducted here in Addis Ababa.
As sources indicate the reason why Ethiopia is selected to host the conference is that the country over the years has registered remarkable growth records in ensuring economic development and reducing the level of absolute poverty.
The precise allotment and effective utilization of the support on productive projects coupled with the new reforms underway throughout the nation have enabled Ethiopia to be chosen to host the conference.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed noted that IDA is the most reliable, predictable and stable source of development for Ethiopia and called for continued support.
President Sahle-Work Zewde for her part noted that Ethiopia’s progress and development has been possible because of the sound and appropriate policies and with the firm support of development partners of which International Development Association (IDA) has been the largest.
With continued support from IDA Ethiopia has made significant progress in agriculture productivity, education sectors and other development areas. “With enhanced support from IDA and other partners to the education sectors, primary school enrollment has risen from 40 present in 2000 to 85 present in 2015. While the school completion rate has progressed during these periods, enrollment is moving closer towards parity,” she noted.
According to her, IDA resources are instrumental to ensure the gains Ethiopia has been achieving over the last decades. However, Ethiopia has a long way to go to ensure poverty reduction strategies success.
Despite substantial progresses, many challenges remain in improving access to quality health and education services, job creations among others.
Forecast shows that under the current trend many IDA countries will remain behind in achieving the SDGs by 2030. This is a clear indication as we have a long way to go to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030.
IDA remains a reliable and stable source of affordable funding to improve the wellbeing of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable.
In this regard the robust replenishment of ‘IDA 19’ is a significant opportunity for development partners to recommit to the eradication of poverty and promote shared prosperity.
The Association shares the World Bank’s mission of reducing poverty and aims to provide affordable development financing to countries whose credit risk is so prohibitive that they cannot afford to borrow commercially or from the Bank’s other programs.
The IDA’s stated aim is to assist the poorest nations in growing more quickly, equitably, and sustainably to reduce poverty. The IDA is the single largest provider of funds to economic and human development projects in the world’s poorest nations.
“IDA’S resources are critical for development needs of countries like Ethiopia. To quote the World Bank data, I noted that between 2011 and 2018, IDA helped to provide essential health services to 657 million people around the globe, gave access to better water services to 86 million people provided immunizations for 274 million children, recruited and trained 8.5 million teachers and constructed, rehabilitated or upgraded 140,000 kilometers of roads.”
This is a significant achievements and a solid reason to continue funding the IDA and given the opportunities and challenges facing IDA recipient nations. There will be a lot of values generated from robust replenishment of ‘IDA19’.
WB Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kristalina Georgieva for her part said that the World Bank Group has been working very hard in Africa to match the trust of that has been placed in IDA.
The ‘IDA 19 Replenishment’ can play a pivotal role in scaling up successful approaches and backing the ambitions new ones that hold tremendous promises for many parts of Africa. “We can build a better future for Africa, together”.
Finance Minister Ahmed Shide also noted that Ethiopia has allocated the resources gained from the IDA to ensure development in various sectors. World Bank is Ethiopia’s largest development financier. In addition to its assistance to development projects, the Bank has made a budgetary support in this budget year. It is also providing support to the ongoing reform initiatives.
The finance support garnered from IDA has been used in increasing agriculture livestock productivity, health, education, environmental protection, expansion of infrastructure, accessing and improving water and sanitation services, in rural and urban safety net programs among others.
In 2019 alone, Ethiopia has secured about five billion USD grant and loan from IDA.
Kristalina Georgieva, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the World Bank, said that the convening of the meeting in Addis Ababa is a reward for Ethiopia’s effective use of IDA’s finical support and an encouragement for the reforms.
According to her, the World Bank is financing more than 13 billion birr development projects in Ethiopia. The Bank will continue its support for the country, she pledged.
In the meeting target was set to raise 80 billion USD, out of which the majority will be channeled to the Horn and Sub-Saharan Africa regions.
The Ethiopian Herald June 26/2019
BY MENGISTEAB TESHOME
