Emergency Program For Poverty Reduction

Contacts:

Giuseppe Zampaglione :   (202) 473 0955

Email: gzampaglione@worldbank.org

Sylvie Nenonene :   (228) 223 3300

Email: snenonene@worldbank.org

DAPAONG (Togo), 14 Octobre 2005.  The World Bank has launched today in Dapaong (Togo) the first phase of the Emergency Program for Poverty Reduction (EPPR).   Designed jointly by the Bank and the UNDP, the EPPR is a community development project aimed at reducing extreme poverty in Togo, by improving access to basic social services for the beneficiary populations.

A grant amounting to 427,267US$ was allocated by the Bank to fund small scale community initiatives in the Région des Savanes, aimed at priority social services in the fields of basic education, primary health care, HIV/AIDS, social protection and other basic social infrastructures.  In addition to community investments, the EPPR will also fund capacity building activities for local communities and institutions, in order to help them manage and execute the community projects in a good manner.  The EPPR will be implemented in the Region by Agence d’Appui aux Initiatives de développement à la Base (AGAIB-Savanes), an agency supporting development initiatives at the grassroots.

The launching ceremony was presided by the Préfet de Tone (Dapaong), and gathered the region’s political, traditional and religious authorities, as well as representatives of NGOs, beneficiary communities, entrepreneurs, and journalists.

In his welcoming address, Mr. Djerkbary Bambah, Regional Director of Planning and President of the Board of AGAIB-Savanes, thanked the Bank and the Togolese Government for having concluded the Grant Agreement that “once again, is going to alleviate the difficulties encountered by the local populations”.  Mr. Bambah pointed out some of the Region’s assets that will contribute to the success of the EPPR, i.e.: “a dynamic technical team [AGAIB-Savanes], an efficient environment for exchange which is its Board, a responsible civil society with competent NGOs, and a population that is motivated and mobilized to participate in the communities’ self-development”.  He then concluded as follows: “It is then rightly that we claim strongly that this project will be implemented with a spirit of collaboration and complementarity with other programs and projects.  The resources allocated will be managed with transparency and efficiency, and will considerably impact on the beneficiaries, through a dynamic of good governance, with the active participation of local communities”.

As for Mr. Giuseppe Zampaglione, Task Team Leader of the EPPR, the amount granted by the Bank, even though limited, allows the institution to resume activities on the ground and contribute to alleviate extreme poverty in the region.  He however stressed that “this is not yet a full reengagement of the Bank in proper terms, but rather an emergency assistance to poor communities.  (…) The amount granted by the Bank for this first phase will help finance, over a period of one year, the completion of more than forty micro-projects in the Région des Savanes (schools, health centers, wells, and other basic community infrastructures)”.  Mr. Zampaglione emphasized: (i) the important role of local beneficiary communities in the EPPR’s implementation, which is “key to engage the participative and social dynamics, the communities’ ownership of the micro-projects, the reinforcement of trust, and the sustainability of projects”; (ii) the limited role of public decentralized services in the EPPR’s implementation, which is a grant and not a credit that the Government will have to repay; and (iii) the importance of donors’ coordination “for a possible extension of the EPPR to the whole country”.

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Note : The EPPR is financed by a grant of the World Bank and a grant of UNDP.   Bank’s contribution for the first phase amounts to US$1,081,765 and will support community initiatives in the Savanes and Maritime regions.  After a positive evaluation of the first phase, an additional amount of US$1,744,912 could be granted by the Bank, which will bring the Bank’s contribution to a total amount of US$2,826,677. The amount granted by the Bank for the first phase will help finalize micro-projects that started (but were not fully completed) under the former Pilot Social Fund Project that was funded by the Bank from 1999 to 2002.

UNDP’s contribution to the EPPR, of a total amount of US$2 million, will help finance the same initiatives in the regions of Kara, Centrale, and Plateaux.  The activities to be funded by UNDP will start by December 2005.

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