WB gives $300m for rural economy, Covid resilience

World Bank signed a $300 million financing agreement with Bangladesh on June 27 to help about 750,000 poor and extreme poor in 20 districts come out of poverty and build resilience to the Covid-19 pandemic and any future shocks.

Through income-generating activities, livelihood and entrepreneurial support, as well as skills development for the poor and extreme poor people, the Resilience, Entrepreneurship and Livelihood Improvement (RELI) Project will help boost the rural economy in about 3,200 villages.

Built on the success of the first and second Social Investment Programme Projects and on the NutonJibon Livelihood Improvement Project, the The RELI project will mobilise, develop, and strengthen community organisations, and finance their community plans, provide cash transfers and loans for income-generating activities, the World Bank said in a statement on Tuesday.

"The Covid-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the poor in rural areas particularly women, by limiting their income and economic opportunities," said Mercy Tembon, World Bank's country director for Bangladesh and Bhutan.

"This project will help to boost the rural economy and 90 per cent of the beneficiaries will be women. The project will also help with health and nutritional awareness. When a woman earns more, her family and the community are better off."

Further, the project will support rural entrepreneurs and producer groups with market linkages, including e-commerce platforms, partnerships with local governments and promotional activities.

It will also provide skills development training to the unemployed or under-employed youth and returnee migrants to increase their employability.

"The project is aligned with the Eighth Five-Year Plan and the Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100," said Fatima Yasmin, secretary of the Economic Relations Division.

"Through community mobilisation and climate-smart agriculture practices, the project will help rural women withstand any future shocks like the pandemic without falling back to poverty."

The project will provide training to almost 490,000 people on climate risk, adaptation, and resilience building. It will also build 5,120 climate-resilient small-scale infrastructures.

The agreement was signed by Yasmin and Tembon on behalf of the government and the World Bank respectively.

The credit from the World Bank's International Development Association has a 30-year term, including a five-year grace period.

The World Bank is among the first development partners to support Bangladesh following its independence.

Bangladesh currently has one of the largest IDA programmestotalling over $14 billion.

Since independence, the World Bank has committed more than $35 billion in grants, interest-free, and concessional credits to the country.