Almost 5 million rural poor will be provided with livelihoods and business supports under a US$200 million financing agreement.
The government on Tuesday signed the agreement with the International Development Association (IDA), the soft-loan window of the World Bank, for the Nuton Jibon Livelihood Improvement Project.
The project is designed to mobilise the poor and extreme poor people, who often remain left out from micro credit schemes, by building and strengthening community institutions including community societies, according to a World Bank news release.
It is also expected to raise nutrition awareness, share agricultural knowledge and focus on enhancing youth skills so that they can take advantage of employment opportunities. The project will fund small scale rural infrastructure.
“The Nuton Jibon Livelihood Improvement Project will scale up the activities of predecessor programmes to improve economic wellbeing and empower the poorest households, and especially poor women,” said Christine Kimes, acting country head of the World Bank Bangladesh.
Despite tremendous progress the country has made in reducing poverty over the past four decades, poverty remains more pervasive in rural areas than in urban areas, the WB official pointed out.
The Nuton Jibon project builds on earlier projects – Social Investment Programme Project (I & II) – which started as a pilot in Jamalpur and Gaibandha district and has now expanded to 16 of the poorest districts.
The agreement was signed by Kazi Shofiqul Azam, additional secretary at the economic relations division, and the WB’s Christine Kimes at the ERD office.
The credit from IDA has a 38-year-term loan with a 6-year grace period, and a service charge of 0.75 percent.
-Prothom Alo
