Ethiopia and the World Bank yesterday signed a Development Grant Agreement to finance the Emergency Drought Recovary Project (EDRP). The agreement was signed by Ambassador Kasahun Ayele, Ambassador Extraordinary and Pkenipotentiary of the FDRE, and Mr. Callisto E. Madavo, Regional Vice President, Africa Region.

The project aims at assisting Ethiopia to respond to the emergency and enable it to help affected families to survive the emergency, retain productive assets, develop sustainable livelihoods, put in place infrastructure and support mechanisms to mitigate the medium term effects of current and future drought emergencies on vulnerable groups, and to stabilize the macro-economy.

Under the agreement, the International Development Association (IDA) would provide USD $60 million to Ethiopia to implement the EDRP.

The EDRP is a three-year project and is expected to be effective by the end of this month. It will be implemented in 35 selected drought-prone woredas of Amhara, Tigray, Oromia, SNNPR, Somali and Afar. The project will be managed by the Food Security Department of the Ministry of Rural Development. Actual implementation will be handled by the regions and beneficiary woredas.