$290m WB credit to strengthen UP
The World Bank (WB) yesterday approved $290 million credit to strengthen the Union Parishads (UP)the lowest tier of rural local governments.
The loan is provided for the Second Local Governance Support Project (LGSP II) and all 4,504 UPs will get direct assistance from it.
The project builds on the success of LGSP-I to further strengthen local level accountability, and will support development initiatives prioritised by local communities, said a WB press release.
The LGSP II will continue to support the government's decentralisation efforts through provision of direct block grants to Union Parishads for financing local development projects once UPs meet the minimum transparency and governance conditions, the release said.
“The World Bank is committed to support Government of Bangladesh's decentralization reforms and remains a longstanding partner in the efforts to strengthen local governments, which play a vital role in enhancing domestic accountability and participatory development,” said Ellen Goldstein, country director of WB Bangladesh.
A key new feature under the project is introduction of performance-based grants in addition to expanding current block grants amount and coverage supported by the initial project.
The new performance-based grants window will reward UPs who demonstrate improvements across a range of indicators including local revenue mobilisation.
About 30 percent of the loan is reserved for local schemes for women, the release said.
The project will strengthen coordination among different sub-national tiers (Union, Upazila and Zila) as well as support institutional development across the entire local government system.
“More than 35,000 community schemes generating employment for poor people have already been implemented by the first LGSP initiative,” said Balakrishna Menon Parameswaran, task team leader of LGSP II.
“LGSP II will further finance thousands of small infrastructure and service delivery community schemes responding to local needs,” he added.
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