World Bank's $1bn Pledge Targets Energy, Jobs For Africa

The World Bank Group has announced $1 billion in proposed new funding to help countries in the Great Lakes region of Africa provide better health and education services.

It is also aimed at generating more cross-border trade and to fund hydroelectricity projects in support of the Great Lakes peace agreement, which was signed by 11 countries in February, this year.

This was disclosed by the World Bank Group President Dr. Jim Yong Kim, who is currently traveling with the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, on a three-day trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Uganda.

According to Dr. Yong Kim, a secure and developed Great Lakes region was vital to Africa's efforts of reducing extreme poverty while creating prosperity for the millions, who have had little economic opportunity.

"We made extraordinary efforts to secure an additional $1 billion in funding because we believe this can be a major contributor to a lasting peace in the Great Lakes region," he said.

Adding that, the funding would help revitalize economic development, jobs creation and improvement over the lives of people who have suffered for far too long.

"Now the leaders of the Great Lakes region, by restarting economic activity and improving livelihoods in border areas, can boost confidence, build economies, and give new opportunities for millions of people," the Group president observed.

He continued that the new regional pledge, in zero-interest financing from the International Development Association (IDA) would support two major regional development priorities - recovery of livelihoods to reduce the vulnerability of people living in the Great Lakes whose communities have suffered greatly during conflict in the region and revitalizing as well as expanding cross-border economic activity to spur greater opportunity and integration in the areas of agriculture, energy, transport and regional trade.

The World Bank's proposed additional funding includes an estimated $100 million for supporting agriculture and rural livelihoods for internally displaced people and refugees in the region.

Another $340 million to support the 80 megawatt Rusumo Falls hydroelectric project for Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania and some $150 million for the rehabilitation of the Ruzizi I and II hydroelectric projects and financing for Ruzizi III, supplying electricity for Rwanda, Burundi, and DRC.

Moreso, $165 million has been geared towards the building of roads in DRC's North and South Kivu and Province Orientale; $180 million for improving infrastructure and border management along the Rwanda-DRC border; and additional millions of dollars for public health laboratories, fisheries and trade facilitation programs among others.

While other parts of sub-Saharan Africa are experiencing high growth rates, countries of the Great Lakes region have had extremely high levels of poverty and very low levels of key services such as access to electricity.

Yields from agriculture also are typically quite low. A key part of the World Bank Group's development approach to the region is to increase power generation and interconnectivity to take advantage of low-cost and renewable sources of hydropower and geothermal energy.

Furthermore, Dr. Yong Kim maintained that developing the hydropower potential in DRC, in particular, would provide Burundi and Rwanda with access to low-cost power and a stake in regional stability.

Currently, there is no regional grid and very limited interconnectivity between countries in the region.

Lauding the pledge while in Kinshasa, UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon mentioned many countries in Africa were taking dynamic forward strides and now the people of the Great Lakes region, especially, the DRC, deserved their full chance for progress.

"A peace agreement must deliver a peace dividend. That is why Dr. Jim Kim and I are making this visit. We see a horizon of hope for the people of the Great Lakes and we are determined to help them every step of the way," the UN chief noted.

Cross-border trade key to peace

In announcing its new funding pledge, the World Bank Group said that promoting significantly more trade is in the common interest of all countries in the region and would greatly improve the effectiveness of national development policies.

The World Bank's Vice president for Africa, Makhtar Diop also indicated that with much electricity for the Great Lakes, "there will be very large economic pay-offs if we can all help to make border crossings easier and faster for people and their goods to move from one country into another."

Africas potential to provide food for its citizens, however, is not yet being realized because farmers in areas like the Great Lakes face more trade barriers in getting their food to markets across the region than farmers anywhere else in the world, Diop said. Too often borders get in the way of getting plentiful food supplies to homes and communities that are struggling with too little to eat.

Improving roads will also help trade and peoples livelihoods

In calling for a regional peace and development solution for the Great Lakes, the World Bank officials said the new financing pledge will help to rehabilitate roads to connect remote trading communities with regional markets.

Bank support will focus on rehabilitation of primary cross-border trunk roads, to be complemented through the rehabilitation and opening of secondary roads required to increase trade and connectivity to allow the free movement of people and goods.

Renewed opportunity for peace in the Great Lakes

Mary Robinson, the Special Envoy of the Great Lakes Region of Africa, who is also part of the fact-finding trip with Ban Ki-moon and Jim Yong Kim, endorsed the World Bank Group's new development commitment to the Great Lakes and its people.

She said there was a fresh chance to do more than just attend to the consequences of conflict.

"There is a chance to resolve its underlying causes and to stop it for good. If this new attempt is to succeed where others have fallen short, there must be optimism and courage in place of cynicism. The governments and the people of this region, and the international community, must believe once again that peace can be achieved, and be determined to take the necessary and well-coordinated actions to obtain it," she added.