[World Bank] ...Supports Rural Poverty Reduction in Northeast Brazil

from Kansas City Info Zine
Press Release

The World Bank Board of Executive Directors approved US$22.5 million additional financing to the Rural Poverty Reduction Project in the State of Piauí, in Northeast Brazil.

Washington, D.C. - infoZine - The additional financing will benefit some 180,000 rural poor people in Piauí through the implementation of approximately 1,200 small-scale basic socio-economic infrastructure and productive subprojects aimed to:

* Improve well-being and incomes of the rural poor through greater access to basic social and economic infrastructure and services and support for productive activities, using proven community-driven development techniques;

* Increase social capital of rural communities and capacity to organize collectively to meet their own needs;
* Enhance local governance by greater citizen participation and transparency in decision-making, through creation and strengthening of community associations and Municipal Councils; and
* Foster closer integration of development policies, programs and projects in rural areas at the local level by assisting the project's participatory Municipal Councils to extend their role in seeking funding from, setting priorities for and making decisions concerning, the allocation of resources from other programs outside the Bank-supported project.

This fixed-spread IBRD loan in U.S. Dollars has a repayment period of 17 years, including five years of grace.