World Bank to grant $65 million for rural Andhra women

By IANS

New Delhi : The World Bank Wednesday sanctioned a grant of $65 million (Rs.2.6 billion) for a project in rural Andhra Pradesh aimed at improving the lives of poor people.


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The project – Andhra Pradesh Rural Poverty Reduction – was commenced in 2003 to enable the rural poor, and has benefited some 5.7 million poor women.

"This project has been critical in developing self-help managed institutions for the poor. Poor rural women in Andhra Pradesh, especially the vulnerable and marginalized, are now making decisions which affect their lives and livelihoods. The results are very encouraging," Isabel Guerrero, the World Bank country director for India, said in a statement.

"Rural poverty has gone down, and incomes and savings have increased significantly," she added.

The self-managed institutions of the poor have collective savings of $226.7 million, and leveraged commercial bank linkages of $883 million since 2003.

"This additional financing will increase investment on institutional development, which in turn will further reduce the cost of credit access to the poor and enhance income generation opportunities for households," said Parmesh Shah, World Bank lead rural development specialist and project team leader.

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