S Leone gets $10m for poverty
2006-12-19 07:25
Freetown - The World Bank will give $10m to aid development in Sierra Leone and help the desperately poor post-war nation reform the way it is governed, says the bank.
According to the bank: "The grant will provide critical resources to support elements of the Government's Poverty Reduction Strategy."
It released a statement in the capital of the west African nation, which in 2001 emerged from one of the most brutal civil wars in modern history.
The statement said that it also aimed to help the country's leaders boost progress in "governance, decentralisation of government, management of public resources and private sector-led economic growth".
The World Bank's president Paul Wolfowitz said on a visit to Sierra Leone in July that its post-war recovery had been managed more successfully than in any other African nation, particularly in governance and use of donor funds.
But, the former British colony was still desperately poor, ranking nearly bottom in the United Nations' 2006 human development index.
On Saturday, a top European Union official in Sierra Leone said the EU would provide 165 million euros in development aid to the country for the next two years.