Ethiopia Receives Funds for the Africa Stockpiles Program Project 1
Press Release No:2007/478/AFR
WASHINGTON, June 19, 2007 – The World Bank Board of Executive Directors today approved a grant to assist the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia to eliminate obsolete pesticide stockpiles owned by the government, and associated waste, and to implement measures to reduce future risks.
The Ethiopian Africa Stockpiles Program will be financed by a US$2.62 million grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) which was endorsed by the GEF Council on May 17, 2007.
The Africa Stockpiles Program (ASP) is a multi-stakeholder initiative, bringing together the skills, expertise, and resources of regional and global intergovernmental organizations, international and African NGOs, multilateral agencies, and the private sector and industry representatives. ASP Ethiopia will be implemented with the support of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Pesticide Action Network (PAN), WWF, and CropLife International, who will focus on the programmatic planning and preparation, field operations, prevention and local capacity building.
The proposed project will help reduce the effects of persistent organic pollutants and protect affected communities from environmental health risks. It also will enhance the capacity of the agricultural sector to better control crop pests and without creating new environmental and health risks.
The ASP calls for various cleanup and site remediation measures to mitigate the impact of publicly-held obsolete pesticide stocks threatening communities, ecosystems, and the environment. It will also strengthen the elements of a regulatory regime, management practices, and public awareness to prevent a recurrence of pesticide accumulation in the future.
“The ASP will support the Government of Ethiopia’s commitments to meeting the objectives of the Stockholm convention for eliminating persistent organic pollutants. It will enhance social and environmental sustainability and contribute to safeguarding natural resources, including land and water conservation and reduce risks to human health,” said Peter Kristensen and Denis Jordy, World Bank Task Team Leaders of the project.
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is a mechanism for providing grants and concessional funding to meet the agreed incremental costs of measures to achieve agreed global environmental benefits in the six focal areas - climate change, biodiversity, international waters, ozone, land degradation, and persistent organic pollutants. GEF also supports the work of the global agreements to combat desertification and eliminate persistent organic pollutants.
The World Bank Group is one of GEF’s implementing agencies and supports countries in preparing GEF co-financed projects and supervises their implementation. It plays the primary role in ensuring the development and management of investment projects. The Bank draws upon its investment experience in eligible countries to promote investment opportunities and to mobilize private sector, bilateral, multilateral, and other government and non-government sector resources that are consistent with GEF objectives and national sustainable development strategies. Since 1991, the World Bank Group has committed $1.972 billion in GEF resources and $3.037 billion in Bank group co-financing for GEF projects in 80 countries. In addition to GEF and Bank resources, it has mobilized additional co-financing of $6.952 billion from other donors.
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