South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Benjamin Takpiny
The government on Monday signed two agreements with the World Bank that will provide financing for the health and agriculture sectors of the country.
The Minister of Finance and Planning Bak Barnaba Chol thanked the World Bank for its support to the people of South Sudan.
“This great help and assistance and support is much appreciated. So on behalf of the government and the people of this country, I want to say thank you for your continued support and for your continuous help to the people of this country,” Chol said during the signing ceremony in Juba.
Chol noted that the health and agriculture sectors are so important to the survival and living standards of the South Sudanese people.
“For our advancement as a country, we have prioritized health and agriculture to move our country forward to safeguard our people from the deteriorating conditions they continue to live in,” he said.
He assured the donors and development partners of transparency and accountability in the disbursement of the funds.
“I know the World Bank stands with us. The portfolio was around 350 million U.S dollars when we started but now we have reached 1.4 billion dollars. In implementing different measures, we have been able to achieve a lot,” Chol said.
“ I’m so much thankful and I will continue to work with the World Bank to facilitate the World Bank, to facilitate all the projects of all our development partners from Canada to America to the European Union and all of you, we are so much grateful for the help. We are looking forward to working with you,” he added.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Josephine Lagu said that she is delighted for the additional funds on financing agriculture in the country.
“I am extremely delighted for this additional financing that the World Bank has decided to offer to the Ministry of Agriculture for resilient agricultural livelihood project, three years ago when we started the journey it was not very easy, but we made a commitment, we made an undertaking that if the World Bank trusted us with the money, the Ministry of Agriculture representing the government will do its very best to make sure that we implement the project successfully,” Lagu said.
For his part, Ousmane Dione, the World Bank Country Director for Eritrea, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Sudan said that the two projects are critical for the development of South Sudan.
“When you have health and food, you have the provision for a long journey. And that is important for the South Sudanese people, and it is coming at a time where investing in health in South Sudan is also investing in future generation. But it is also investing in the productivity of South Sudan, which is currently much needed. And when we talk about productivity, agriculture is fundamentally important. Feeding the South Sudanese people. Producing in excess to be able not only to feed your own citizens, but then also, you know, to export. That is a pride which every single nation should strive for and many countries who have been in extremely difficult situation have managed to pass the challenge. So there is no reason why South Sudan will not be able to do it,” Dione said.
The World Bank has provided 30 million dollars for the Resilient Agriculture and Livelihood Project (RALP) to support capacity building in good agricultural practice, investment support for improving agricultural production, Food production, animal vaccination and one health and reduction of fish waste and losses and project management and technical assistance.
The South Sudan Health Transformation Project to be funded to tune of 400 million dollars from the World Bank and other donors will expand access to basic package of health and nutrition services, improve health sector stewardship and strengthen the health system.
“If the South Sudanese, all of them without exception have access to full health coverage, we have a saying back in my second home country in the West that when you have peace and when you have health, you have two fundamental provisions to take a long journey towards success,” Dione said.
