unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (09/16/89)
IFAD SIGNS PARTICIPATORY DEVELOPMENT LOAN WITH BANGLADESH
Posting Date: 09/14/89 Source: UNITEX Network, Hoboken, NJ, USA
UN PRESS RELEASE
ROME, 11 September (IFAD) -- The President of the International
Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Idriss Jazairy and the
Ambassador of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, Waliur
Rahman, signed a $US 8.2 million (SDR 6.2 million) loan, for
Phase III of the Grameen Bank Project.
IFAD first helped finance the Grameen Bank project in 1980, with
a loan of SDR 7.6 million. Its main aim has been to provide
credit to the rural landless, in particular women, who compose
an estimated 85 per cent of the Bank's beneficiaries. Phase III
of the project seeks to further consolidate as well as
decentralize the institution. Phase III will be co-financed by
a consortium of donors composed of the Norweigian Agency for
International Development (NORAD), the Canadian International
Development Agency (CIDA), Kreditanstait fur Wiederaufbau (KfW),
Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), the Ford
Foundation (FF), and the Swedish International Development
Authority (SIDA). The total amount of co-financing will amount
to $US 97.74 million.
The Project, which focuses on group-based savings mobilization
and credit delivery, will benefit both small farmers and the
rural landless, women as well as men. By providing easy access
to credit and by making borrowers aware of simple, low-cost
technologies useful in increasing the productivity of their
loans, new employment opportunities will be created. As of June
1989, the Grameen Bank has disbursed over $US 133 million to
more than 71,000/men and almost 500,000/women through over 600
branches. In Phase III, the total number of beneficiaries is
expected to increase to more than one million.
Under the new Phase, Grameen Bank loans will be granted to
promote activities which would generate environmental benefits.
The Bank will also motivate its members to improve their homes
and install pit latrines to engage in small-scale homestead
production, and the small-scale processing of renewable natural
resources.
Bangladesh has received 10 loans so far, amounting to $US 175
million. With the new loan, Bangladesh continues to be the
largest beneficiary of IFAD's resources.
* Origin: UNITEX --> Toward a United Species (1:107/501)
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