World Bank approves loan for education

THE World Bank has approved a multi-million-dollar loan to support Government’s ambitious Education and Training Sector Improvement Programme (ETSIP).

The World Bank board of directors granted a first loan of US$7,5 million (about N$52,5 million) via its International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) on Thursday. Another US$7,5 million is set to follow later.The development loan coincided with World Bank board discussion of the Namibian Interim Strategy Note.Over the past few years the Namibian Government had signalled interest in World Bank support for its development agenda.The first strategy note set out a framework for strengthening the World Bank Group’s engagement with Namibia over the next two years.At the end of this period the World Bank and Government will discuss the possibility of preparing a full Country Partnership Strategy for Namibia.This first Development Policy Loan specifically supports the first implementation phase of five years of ETSIP, which in total is estimated to cost about US$357 million or N$2,5 billion and stretches over 15 years.”The Development Policy Loan (DPL) is an instrument that provides direct budget support and disburses funds against policy and institutional reforms already achieved by the (receiving) government,” the World Bank said in a statement on Thursday.”The loan constitutes about 14 per cent of the funds required for the first year of ETSIP1, which is phase one.”The rest will be financed by Government, national and international development partners.The loan will support the development of specific policies and policy instruments to guide planned sector reforms, legal instruments to enforce policy implementation and institutional capacities required for effective implementation of planned sector reforms.This programme is consistent with the World Bank’s Africa Action Plan (AAP) flagship goal of building skills for global competitiveness in a global economy and strengthening partner countries’ capacity to design, implement and monitor their own sector development plans.A memorandum of understanding between the Government and international development partners designates the World Bank as the leading technical agency during the implementation of ETSIP1 and the European Union as the leading co-ordinating agency.Another US$7,5 million is set to follow later.The development loan coincided with World Bank board discussion of the Namibian Interim Strategy Note.Over the past few years the Namibian Government had signalled interest in World Bank support for its development agenda.The first strategy note set out a framework for strengthening the World Bank Group’s engagement with Namibia over the next two years.At the end of this period the World Bank and Government will discuss the possibility of preparing a full Country Partnership Strategy for Namibia.This first Development Policy Loan specifically supports the first implementation phase of five years of ETSIP, which in total is estimated to cost about US$357 million or N$2,5 billion and stretches over 15 years.”The Development Policy Loan (DPL) is an instrument that provides direct budget support and disburses funds against policy and institutional reforms already achieved by the (receiving) government,” the World Bank said in a statement on Thursday.”The loan constitutes about 14 per cent of the funds required for the first year of ETSIP1, which is phase one.”The rest will be financed by Government, national and international development partners.The loan will support the development of specific policies and policy instruments to guide planned sector reforms, legal instruments to enforce policy implementation and institutional capacities required for effective implementation of planned sector reforms.This programme is consistent with the World Bank’s Africa Action Plan (AAP) flagship goal of building skills for global competitiveness in a global economy and strengthening partner countries’ capacity to design, implement and monitor their own sector development plans.A memorandum of understanding between the Government and international development partners designates the World Bank as the leading technical agency during the implementation of ETSIP1 and the European Union as the leading co-ordinating agency.