WB announces new $140 mln grant for Yemen cash transfers project

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 (YPA) – The World Bank (WB) has announced a new $ 140 million grant from the International Development Association (IDA) to continue to deliver emergency cash transfers to 1.5 million families of Yemen’s poorest and most vulnerable households.

“The new grant represents the third additional funding for the project, which began in 2016, and will finance two additional quarters of cash payments,” WB said in a statement, which Yemen News Agency (Saba) obtained a copy of it on Saturday.

The project aims to address the immediate impact of the crisis on the poorest and most vulnerable people of Yemen, including women and internally displaced persons, and women account for half of recipients of cash transfers.

“A regular source of income is crucial for vulnerable families to keep children in school and very important to be able to buy food and medicine,” said Dr. Raja Kattan, country director of the World Bank’s Yemen office.

According to the statement, the current project covers all 333 districts of Yemen, and that the latest follow-up reports show that nine out of ten recipients of remittances use the money to buy food and then buy medicine and pay off debts.

“The additional funding from WB for the emergency cash transfer project will help the ongoing efforts to respond to the catastrophic economic situation facing millions of Yemenis,” said Meritxell Relano, UNICEF Representative in Yemen.

“Families will be able to buy basic commodities and thus prevent many children and mothers from becoming victims of malnutrition,” she added.

The total IDA emergency grants to Yemen, including this new funding, since July 2016, amounted one billion and 162 million dollars.

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