Media Contact: In Washington, DC: Herbert Boh (202) 473 3548 hboh@worldbank.org Washington, DC, March 7, 2005 – The World Bank today announced that the ambassadors of seven African countries signed a series of agreements with the Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) for the Africa Emergency Locust Project. Beneficiary countries are Burkina Faso, Chad, Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal. The signing formally puts the anti-locust program into effect. Now countries will move forward with individual strategies to contain the infestation and limit the damage to future harvests. The World Bank first became engaged in the support of locust control activities in September 2004 when it approved US$12.4 million (an advance on the total US$60 million credit) to the seven Sahel region countries of West and Central Africa. “This is an important milestone in the preparation of the project, as it allows governments to proceed with the final steps of ratification of the project in the countries, which would allow for the more substantive investments required for safe and sound locust control,” said Peter Kristensen, the World Bank’s Task Team Leader for the project. Sahelian countries are presently gearing up for the presumed summer invasion by locust by reviewing lessons learned from last year’s locusts control campaign, and they are in the process of preparing very specific ‘contingency plans’ for 2005 locusts control, which includes the inventory of resources currently available. “We know those that benefit from the project the most are the poorest,” said Tertius Zongo, Burkina Faso’s ambassador to the US. “The only capital the poor have is the land. The financing is a good start. It will help strengthen capacity at the country level and at a regional level to develop systems to coordinate efforts to prevent a potential disaster.” A specific design feature of the Africa Emergency Locust Project is the support of national locust control programs to coordinate investments of the many donors who have come forthward with support either in form of financing or in-kind donations of pesticides and equipment. By firmly coordinating donor’s input, countries will ensure that no overlap or gaps exist in what it takes to get the job done in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. The next major event in the preparation for the 2005 locusts control campaign is planned for April 25-29 in Bamako. During this meeting national locust control specialist will review their contingency plans with experts, the FAO, World Bank and other agencies. The countries will be able to share experiences among Sahelian and North African countries, which in turn will enable the countries and the international community to deal with locusts control as the regional problem it has become. For more information on the World Bank’s work in Africa visit: http://www.worldbank.org/afr/ For the Africa Emergency Locust Project documents visit: http://web.worldbank.org/external/projects/main?pagePK=104231&piPK=73230&theSitePK=40941&menuPK=228424&Projectid=P092473 Media Contacts in Countries Burkina Faso: Kadiatou Touré (226) 30 62 37 ktoure@worldbank.org Chad: Grace Deciat (235-52) 3247 gdeciat@worldbank.org Mali: Moussa Diarra (221) 849 50 00 mdiarra@worldbank.org Mauritania: Ba Abdoulaye Oumar (222) 525 10 17 babdoulaye@worldbank.org Niger: Paul Dossou-Yovo (227) 73 59 29 pdossouyovo@worldbank.org Senegal/Gambia: Mademba Ndiaye (221) 849 50 00 mademba@worldbank.org |
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