Ethiopian Road Development Project Wins Prestigious World Bank Good Practice
Award
WASHINGTON, June 4 /PRNewswire/ -- The Embassy of the Federal Democratic
Republic of Ethiopia in Washington, D.C., today announced that the Ethiopian
Road Sector Development Program has won a prestigious Good Practice Award from
the World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group (IEG).
The road-related part of the Ethiopian Road Sector Development Program
Support Project was selected, along with six other winner projects, by World
Bank experts from a variety of development disciplines. The Ethiopian Road
Sector Development Program was chosen in the monitoring and evaluation
category from among hundreds of projects worldwide.
"The award signifies the importance of further directing the Bank's
support to sectors that significantly contribute towards accelerating a
sustained and people-centered economic development," Ethiopia's Ambassador to
the United States, Dr. Samuel Assefa said.
IEG awards recognize strong Bank performers in design, implementation,
and/or monitoring and evaluation and contribution to positive development
outcomes. Since 2004, IEG has annually selected a small number of winners from
among hundreds of operations evaluated during the previous fiscal year for its
annual Good Practice Awards.
About 45 practitioners that took part in Ethiopian projects received
awards, and the Ethiopian project earned high praise during a ceremony held at
the Bank's Preston Auditorium on June 3, 2008.
"The work highlighted today has contributed to positive development
outcomes. I believe today's award recipients will provide examples for other
work that can contribute to strengthening the impact of the World Bank Group's
partnership with countries," said Vinod Thomas, the Director General of the
Bank's Independent Evaluation Group
The road-related part of the Ethiopian project won its award after being
recognized for strong performance in all dimensions of the evaluation. The
Ethiopian Roads Authority has participated in an initiative under the
Sub-Saharan Africa Transport Policy program aimed at developing best practices
within the Africa region by establishing appropriate transport sector
performance indicators. These indicators conform to those agreed to by the
African Ministers of Transport/Infrastructure to measure the progress in
achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
Based on the five-year Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Development
Plan (PASDEP), the Ethiopian Government plans to increase the total road
lengths throughout the country from 37,018 km in 2004-5 to 48,990 km by fiscal
year 2009-10. With 110% of the target goals for 2006-7 met, the Ethiopian
government is on course to fully meet the plan's five-year benchmarks.
The World Bank is one of the key development partners for Ethiopia. The
country's relationship with the international body dates back to the 1950s and
the country has benefited tremendously from it. As of December 2007, the
Bank's portfolio in Ethiopia amounts to $2120 million to support the
implementation of 22 ongoing and newly approved projects of which $1463
million (69%) is in the form of loans while the remaining $657 million (31%)
is in the form of grants. About 47% of this portfolio is allocated for
infrastructure development in the areas of roads and power.
The World Bank first began supporting the Government's Road Sector
Development Program in 1998. The third phase of the project, amounting to $225
million in International Development Association (IDA) credit is currently
under implementation. The Good Practice Award was given in connection with the
first phase of the project.
SOURCE Embassy of Ethiopia
Eyob Tekalign Tolina, +1-202-274-4562, for Embassy of Ethiopia
