Donors pledge 3.6 billion USD for Ethiopia's SDPRP implementation

Addis Ababa,December 8(ENA)-- Donors have pledged 3.6 billion US Dollars to Ethiopia for a three-year implementation of the Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction Program (SDPRP).

Briefing journalists here on Sunday at the conclusion of the two-day Consultative Group (CG) meeting, officials of the Ethiopian Government, the UN Development Program (UNDP) and the World Bank said the pledge is to be realized in the form of grants and concessional loans.

The joint press briefing was given by Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Sufian Ahmed, the Minister of State, Dr. Mulu ketsela, UNDP Country Representative, Samuel Nyambi and World Bank Country Director, Ishac Diwan.

With this latest pledge, the donors are said to have entered a new phase of active partnership with Ethiopia.

Donors' representatives commended Ethiopia for the comprehensiveness of the SDPRP and the participatory manner in which it was formulated, the officials said.

The pledge is a gradual shift towards direct budget support by recognizing the importance of project and sectoral funding, the CG meeting underscored.

The delegates endorsed a new partnership that aims at increasing the level of international assistance to Ethiopia .

The government and donors also agreed on principle of mutual accountability based on predictability of resource flow on the part of donors and assurances that the fund would be utilized efficiently.

The donors encouraged the government to deepen public-private partnerships and to establish mechanisms to institutionalize the participation of civil society

Integrating cross-cutting issues of HIV/AIDS and gender are the essential development goals, the meeting noted.

The experience of Ethiopia would be presented as a pilot to a High Level Forum on Donor Harmonization in Rome in February next year.

The fourth CG meeting was organized by the Ethiopian Government, the World Bank, the UNDP and the Development Assistance Group (DAG).

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