A WB COVID recovery loan approved for Eswatini

The World Bank today approved a seventy-five million dollars credit for the Ministry of the Eswatini Kingdom  to help it recover faster from COVID-19.

The Economic Recovery Development Policy Credit II is the second of two missions designed to assist Eswatini's economic rebuilding agenda and promote long-term recovery. Eswatini's post-COVID-19 economic recovery program and attempts to undertake important structural reforms to strengthen public financial management and governance, promote transparency and accountability in the public sector, and encourage private sector development are supported by the program.

More significantly, the initiative will aid in the improvement of the lives of the poor and vulnerable by promoting policy and institutional changes that not only safeguard lives and livelihoods, but also provide economic possibilities and enhance public service delivery.

"In the short to medium term, the changes supported by this operation will aimed at poverty reduction and beneficial social benefits," explains Marie Francoise Marie-Nelly, World Bank Manager for Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, and South Africa. "It will assist Eswatini in regaining its footing by focusing on those who have been most affected by the recent succession of crises and tackling structural concerns that were holding Eswatini back even before the COVID-19 outbreak." Through this operation, we will continue to promote the governance and transparency agenda, which will help to strengthen citizen trust and public-private partnership."

The program aims to deepen and advance reforms begun by the first International Development Loan, which has been accepted in 2020, only with objective of balancing the country's fiscal position, enhance competitiveness, and assisting economic expansion, while also continuing to support national policies to enhance the healthcare system and manage the effects of the COVID-19 disease outbreak on the poor and vulnerable.The creation of a single government treasury account to ensure fiscal discipline's sustainability, the industrialization of the public procurement method, including use of the e-GP system, and the adaptation of the government enterprise (SOE) structure to streamline and improve the performance of SOEs, which currently represent a significant drain on public resources, are all examples of specific measures to improve transparency, accountability, and efficiency of public spending.

World Bank Group COVID-19 Response

The World Bank Group, as one of the world's greatest providers of finance and information for poor nations, is taking a comprehensive and swift approach to assisting developing countries in strengthening their pandemic preparedness. We're supporting public health initiatives, ensuring the flow of crucial supplies and equipment, and assisting the private sector in maintaining operations and jobs. Over a 15-month period ending in June 2021, the World Bank Group will provide up to $160 billion in financial assistance to help more than 100 countries protect the poor and vulnerable, promote companies, and boost economic recovery. This comprises $50 billion in additional IDA resources in the form of grants and substantially subsidized loans, as well as $12 billion in funding for poor countries to procure and distribute COVID-19 vaccinations.