Contact: In Washington DC: Mohamad Al-Arief (1-202) 458-5964, malarief@worldbank.org In Jakarta:Randy Salim: (62-21) 5299-3259 rsalim1@worldbank.org
JAKARTA, April 15, 2008 – The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved two new loans valued at US$ 415 million for the scale-up of the Indonesian Government’s National Community Empowerment Program (PNPM) –one of the largest community-driven development programs in the world. This additional financing will help significantly increase the coverage of community bock grants in rural areas, and lend further support to poverty reduction programs in existing urban areas. “This well performing program has helped create a better life for millions of poor in rural and urban areas across Indonesia. We are very pleased to continue playing a part in this national success story, especially as the Indonesian government comes closer to reaching its target of bringing PNPM programs to every Indonesian kecamatan by the end of this year,” said Joachim von Amsberg, Indonesia Country Director, World Bank. “The greater community involvement and local governance supported by the PNPM framework is key to Indonesia’s development agenda.” New financing of US$300 million will go towards supporting the geographical scale-up of the National Program for Community Empowerment in Rural Areas (PNPM Rural), from its current geographical coverage of 2,864 rural kecamatans (sub-districts) to approximately 4,371 by the end of 2009. PNPM Rural builds on the community-driven development programs launched at the kecamatan level in 1998, by the Indonesian government. Under the current scheme, each kecamatan receives up to US$ 300,000 in block grants to develop local services or infrastructure, based on a collective process of planning and decision-making. Thus far, these grants have reached 34,000 villages and are expected to cover all 70,000 villages in the country by 2009. An additional loan of US$ 115 million will also go towards supporting the scale-up of activities under the National Program for Community Empowerment in Urban Areas (PNPM Urban). These include: § Supplementing the number of block grants to around 4,593 existing PNPM Urban wards § Financing a full community development cycle in about 1,575 additional wards § Incorporating awareness of disaster risk management and emergency preparedness into the urban framework. “The scale-up in both rural and urban programs is expected to help poor communities benefit from improved socio-economic and local governance conditions,” said Sonia Hammam, Sustainable Development Sector Manager for Indonesia, World Bank. To read more about the World Bank’s support for Indonesia Visit: www.worldbank.org/id |
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