Press Release

OFID Board releases US$5.1 million in grant assistance to promote development

PR31/2009 June 18, 2009 Vienna, Austria
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The Governing Board of the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) has approved grant financing of US$5.1 million. The approval was given at the Board’s 127th Session held yesterday at OFID’s headquarters, Vienna, Austria.

A grant of US$2.5 million will support an OFID/ILO (International Labor Organization) multi-regional project on Strengthening the World of Work Response to HIV/AIDS. The initiative aims at developing comprehensive programs to address high-risk populations and vulnerable workers and their families. Also, it will address capacity gaps in the national AIDS response. The beneficiaries are African countries Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Senegal and Sierra Leone. Beneficiary countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are Bolivia, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua and Paraguay. The grant will be drawn from OFID’s Special Grant Account for HIV/AIDS Operations.

A grant of US$1.2 million was also approved at the meeting. Proceeds will be allocated to eight CGIAR-sponsored (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) agricultural research centers. These are CIAT (International Center for Tropical Agriculture), CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center), CIP (International Potato Center), ICARDA (International Center for Research in the Dry Areas), ICRISAT (International Crops Research for the Semi-Arid Tropics), ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute), IWMI (International Water Management Institute) and the World Fish Center. The funds will help finance schemes that target areas of research and capacity-building policies. In turn, these will have major impact on agricultural development; food security; health; technology transfer and the management and conservation of natural resources. Beneficiaries include some 30 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Another grant of US$1 million was approved to help fund a project of Pan American Development Foundation (PADF) aimed at improving water supply and sanitation services in Haiti. The objectives are to boost the health and quality of life of Haitians by increasing access to potable water and safe sanitation services. Other benefits include strengthening local institutions’ capacity to manage and sustain the related infrastructure. The activities will entail reviewing the status of the existing water supply and sanitation sector; identifying priority areas; constructing and rehabilitating of water supply stations. The activities will also provide technical assistance and introduce modern technologies in the form of pilot projects.

A US$400,000 grant will be extended to the NGO Hilfswerk Austria International in support of a rural development scheme in the coastal zones of Lake Managua, Nicaragua. The project aims to improve the living conditions of farming communities in the districts of Matere and Managua south of Lake Managua, where large-scale depletion of natural resources and soil degradation are having a harmful effect on the environment. To help curb this situation, activities will focus on the reforestation of 300 ha of degraded forest area; carrying out of capacity building measures among farmers in natural disaster mitigation measures; and the construction of water wells. Works will be done in cooperation with the Hilfswerk branch in Nicaragua and the Tropical Agricultural Research Center based in Costa Rica.

Since its inception more than 30 years ago, OFID has provided more than US$447 million in grant support, including funding for technical assistance, research, emergency assistance and food aid.

 

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