The World Bank has approved three loans totaling US$145 million to strengthen healthcare, improve roads and promote regularizing land titles in Nicaragua. It also approved the new 2018-2022 Partnership Strategy with that country.
The new investments are financed by the International Development Association, the World Bank entity that helps the poorest countries. The loans for the health and land-titling projects are for 30 years, while the road project is a 10-year loan.
The Minister of Finance and Public Credit, Iván Acosta said, “The new Partnership Framework is aligned with the objectives of our government’s National Human Development Plan, which prioritizes better living conditions for our people, economic growth and more employment to reduce poverty.”
The US$60 million “Project for Comprehensive Public Healthcare Service Delivery” will help expand the Community and Family Health Model nationwide to provide better healthcare services for women of reproductive age, children under age five, adults over age 50, adolescents and the Indigenous population.
World Bank representative in Nicaragua, Luis Constantino said, “Better jobs mean less poverty and our Partnership focuses on both investing in the human capital of Nicaraguans, health, education and skills, and on the private sector to create better paying jobs. We prioritize working with young people, women, Indigenous populations, people of African descent, and in territories such as the dry belt and the Caribbean regions.”
There are three pillars of this partnership: improving job skills for those from disadvantaged groups, facilitating private investment for job creation, and strengthening public institutions to improve disaster and external economic crises risk management.
The strategy includes financing and technical assistance from the International Development Association as well as from the International Finance Corporation to develop the private sector. It prioritizes education, health, transportation, rural water and sanitation works, landholding, renewable energy and economic productivity.
