The World Bank Board of Executive Directors Thursday approved an International Development Association (IDA) credit of 28,1 million US dollar to support Zambia in the implementation of its economic expansion and diversification program.
An additional 4 million dollar grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) whose Council approved the grant in May 2003, will help conserve wildlife and natural habitat in priority national parks, and secure global biodiversity assets thereby providing the natural resource base for development of the tourism sector.
Within the overall project, the GEF supported Protected Areas subcomponent is also funded by the World Bank and by NORAD – the Norwegian aid agency. This is thus an example of three donor agencies collaborating with the Government of Zambia in this key initiative, to improve management in the short term and increase sustainability in the long term.
– This project will help reduce the vulnerability of Zambias economy to shocks by supporting diversification of its sources of growth beyond copper. This will be done through selective public investments that stimulate private investments, create conditions for increasing the contribution of gemstone, agribusiness and tourism sectors to gross domestic product and export revenues, and by improving sector specific policy and regulatory frameworks and strengthening the capacity of Government agencies to implement them, said Constantine Chikosi, World Bank Task Team Leader for the project.
Notably the GEF grant to support the protected areas subcomponent will seek to improve Zambia Wildlife Authoritys (ZAWA) capacity to manage the Mosi-o-Tunya National Park, which hosts the Victoria Falls, and the Kafue National Park, which is close to the Falls, thereby helping to underpin sustainable development of tourism in Zambia.
Specifically, the aim is to reverse biodiversity erosion in the two National Parks and its surrounding areas and to improve the conservation of Zambias selected natural ecosystems, freshwater sources and carbon sinks which are globally significant and vital to the sustained livelihood of people living in surrounding areas.
Consequently, the grant support will lead to strengthening the management capacity of ZAWA park units; increasing the quality of the wildlife/landscape resources as a tourism product; increasing the financial sustainability of park management with the associated increase in tourism-based revenues and; enhancing local communitys share of wildlife-based revenues and increasing their incentive for good stewardship of wild lands such as the game management areas.
Significantly, by helping to conserve wildlife and natural habitat in priority national parks, GEF participation in SEED will help secure global biodiversity assets, thereby also improving the attractiveness of protected areas for private investors.
The Project would thus support the Governments objective of achieving and sustaining higher economic growth rates.
GEF is a mechanism for providing new and additional grant and concessional funding to meet the agreed incremental costs of measures to achieve agreed global environmental benefits in the four focal areas – Climate change; Biological diversity; International waters; and Ozone layer depletion. GEF also supports the work of the global agreements to combat desertification and eliminate persistent organic pollutants.
The World Bank Group is one of GEFs 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 US dollar in GEF resources and 3,037 billion dollar 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 US dollar from other donors.
For further information on Banks GEF program, visit www.worldbank.org/gef. For further information on GEF, visit www.gefweb.org.
The credit is on standard International Development Association (IDA) terms, with a commitment fee of 0,5 percent and a service charge of 0,75 percent. The credits period of maturity is 40 years, including a 10-year period of grace.
For more information on the World Banks work in sub-Saharan Africa visit www.worldbank.org/afr
For more information on the World Banks work in Zambia visit www.worldbank.org/afr/zm
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
