BD to receive $858m WB financing in two projects

The World Bank (WB) will provide Bangladesh with US$ 858 million to enhance climate-resilient agricultural growth, food security, and improve road safety.
To this effect, two financing agreements were signed between the WB and the government of Bangladesh said a WB press release.
Secretary of the Economic Relations Division Sharifa Khan Sharifa Khan and the World Bank Bank Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan Abdoulaye Seck, respectively signed the agreement on behalf of their respective sides.
Of the total amount, the World Bank will provide $500 million for the Programme on Agricultural and Rural Transformation for Nutrition, Entrepreeurship, and Resilience (PARTNER) while another $358 million for the Road Safety Project.
The credits are from the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA) and have a 30-year term, including a five-year grace period. The PARTNER project will also receive a $43 million co-financing from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), said a press release.
The $500 million Programme on Agricultural and Rural Transformation for Nutrition, Entrepreneurship, and Resilience (PARTNER) will help transform the agriculture sector by promoting crop diversification, food safety, and climate resilience across agri-food systems of Bangladesh.
The Programme will support sustainable and nutritious food production through greater efficiency in input use, good agriculture practices, and the promotion of stress-tolerant and nutrient-dense varieties, said a press release.
It will help increase entrepreneurship and access to services by expanding access to digital agricultural services tools, improved food safety processes, and increased female and youth entrepreneurship.
It will also help modernize institutions and policies through improved data management, increased research and development activities, and partnerships with global agricultural research institutions and with the private sector.
"These two projects will contribute to the country's vision of achieving upper-middle income status by 2031," said ERD Secretary Sharifa Khan.
"Our National Agriculture Policy places high priority to ensure nutrition, food security, and climate resilient agriculture and the new Road Transport Act places a substantial focus on road safety," she added.
Sharifa said by ensuring food security, empowering farmers, creating opportunities for entrepreneurship as well as improving road safety management and minimizing tragic loss of human lives, these two projects will contribute to sustainable economic growth.
"Bangladesh has made remarkable development and economic growth since independence. New frontiers of challenges, like increasing climate change impacts, now call for urgent actions.
The World Bank is committed to helping Bangladesh overcome barriers to sustainable and inclusive green growth," said Abdoulaye Seck, World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan. Seck said these two projects will be important to help the country remain on a sustainable growth path through boosting climate-resilient agricultural productivity and enhancing the income of hundreds and thousands of farmers as well as protect the people and the economy from the loss caused by untimely deaths, disabilities, and injuries resulting from road crashes.
The $358 million Road Safety Project-which is the first dedicated road safety project in South Asia supported by the World Bank-will help the country improve road safety and reduce deaths and injuries from road traffic crashes in selected high-risk highways and district roads.
In two national highways-N4 (Gazipur-Elenga) and N6 (Natore to Nawabganj)-the project will pilot comprehensive road safety measures, including improved engineering designs, signing and marking, pedestrian facilities, speed enforcement, and emergency care.

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