African Development Bank (ADB) has announced a grant and loan package of 80.18 million dollars to support recovery programmes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to target the educational, health and agricultural sectors, the banks spokesman, Eric Chinje, told IRIN on Wednesday.
The health-care project, worth 36.3 million dollars, targets areas in eastern DRC devastated by ethnic fighting which claimed thousands of lives. The project will be directed at improving the health status of the population, especially the vulnerable groups.
The main objectives of the project are to help improve as well as reduce the high rate of morbidity and mortality due to communicable diseases like malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, Chinje said in Kampala, the Ugandan capital.
He went on to say that 7.6 million dollars was committed to the reconstruction of the DRCs education system. Special attention would be devoted to improving access to education for children and youth in difficulty.
Another portion of the package, about 36.3 million dollars, will go to the rehabilitation of the agricultural and rural sectors. The project will seek to strengthen food security and reduce poverty.
Areas of the provinces of Bas-Congo and Bandundu were chosen as priority intervention areas because of their high poverty level and because these two provinces account for 25 percent of the countrys agricultural Gross Domestic Product.
Kilde: Irinnews, FN
