World Bank gives US $41 million for emergency recovery

The World Bank has approved a credit of US $41 million to help the Republic of Congo's stabilisation and recovery process, after nearly a decade of war. A statement issued on Tuesday in Washington D.C., the bank's headquarters, said the bank's board of directors had approved the credit to be used to improve the living conditions of the poor and to strengthen civil society in rural areas and small towns. Approved under the Emergency Recovery and Community Support Project, the bank said the money would be used to facilitate the "decentralisation process and the effective provision of basic social services outside the main cities of Brazzaville [the capital] and Pointe-Noire". "Activities under the programme aim to help relieve the economic and social hardship caused by the successive crises in areas that have received little external support over the last years," the bank said. It said the project would also meet rehabilitation challenges and reduce unemployment by promoting the use of labour-intensive methods. "Community-based organisations will be strengthened, stakeholders will participate effectively in the definition of key priorities for poverty reduction, and local authorities will be more accountable vis-à-vis the population", Xavier Devictor, the World Bank task team leader for the Congo project, was quoted as saying.