20100412
AFRICA NEWS

Malawi has received a grant of $17.5 million from African Development Bank (AfDB) to help implement one of its projects of fighting poverty. The southern African country with a population of 13.1 million has been haunted by poverty.

Media reports in the country said that AfDB which has been assisting Malawi in several projects approved the grant at its headquarters in Tunis, Tunisia.

According to a statement the bank said through the country’s Governance and Poverty Reduction Support Grant (GPRSG II) the grant will help plans to improve efficiency, transparency and accountability in the use of public resources while providing resources to protect social expenditures and improve public service delivery.

“The programme will support policy and institutional reforms to strengthen economic governance and public financial management, through improvement in the budget process, external auditing, and public procurement,” said the bank.

AfDB said the grant is part of a broader package of support both from the bank and from other development partners to support the country’s plans to strengthen governance and reduce poverty.

“The operation is expected to generate several results through improved government performance and spending on pro-poor services, like health and education, to benefit Malawian citizens,” said AfDB.

Currently AfDB chairs the Common Approach to Budget Support (Cabs) donor group in Malawi.

The bank’s resident representative for the country Frank Kufakwandi said the collaborative working of the bank with Malawi government and development partners has helped to strengthen the design of the project.

Apart from helping Malawi in several other projects including agriculture, AfDB is also working with other countries in Africa among them Zambia.

Malawi depends on agriculture for its income however, it has solely relied on donor funding to run several of its projects.

Recently the country’s president Bingu Wa Mutharika who is also African Union (AU) chairman criticized donors, urging them to stop imposing their policies on African countries.