Ghana

Accra, June 27, GNA - The Board of Directors of the World Bank on Thursday approved a 22 million dollars additional credit facility to the Government of Ghana under the Community Based Rural Development Project (CBRDP).

A release from the Bank Headquarters in Washington received in Accra on Friday said communities, local government units and the Government would benefit from training and investment in infrastructure for agriculture, social and human resource development and natural resource management.

The objective of the Project is to strengthen the capacity of rural communities to enhance their quality of life by improving their productive assets, rural infrastructure and access to key support services from private and public sources. The Project would also provide critical resources to respond to priority works in the three Northern Regions that were most affected by last year's floods.

The release said a wide range of eligible public works would be supported throughout the country, which, to date have concentrated on the provision of primary schools, wells, feeder roads, health and nutrition facilities, toilets and markets.

It said out of the estimated 18.4 million dollars for this component, 6.5 million dollars would go toward reconstruction efforts in the North of the country in response to last year's floods, and 11.9 million dollars would be channeled through District Assemblies in support of decentralized service delivery. The projects include institutional strengthening and capacity building of communities, district assemblies and national authorities. Community based organizations; local, regional and national Government institutions would be trained to plan, manage and oversee public investments to help to ensure more cost-effective service delivery to rural communities as part of the Government's overall decentralization efforts.

Besides ongoing training in local level planning; procurement; financial management and oversight of works activities; the Project would also support training in contracts management and rapid results methodologies for selected flood-affected communities and Area Councils.

Particular focus of this capacity building would be on Area Councils and Districts either affected by the floods in the North; newly created, or where on-demand support is indicated, there might also be need for support to regional and national level institutions. It would also involve project management for expanded work in the North and to extend the Project until June 30, 2010. The Project would continue to support management structures and systems under the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment that work through zonal offices in support of all Regional Planning and Coordination Units under the Regional Ministers. The support would continue until the revised Project closing date of June 30, 2010.