World Bank, international donors sign agreement for $15 million and 10 million euro with PA for development
Headline: “Under the auspices and in the presence of Shtayyeh: Signing two agreements to support the municipalities’ emergency services and development”
“Two additional funding agreements – from the World Bank worth $15 million and the French Development Agency (AFD) worth 10 million euro – were signed for the Municipal Development Project (the third phase) [parentheses in source], which is being implemented through the Municipal Development and Lending Fund (i.e., a PA “semi-governmental institution”). This was in Ramallah, under the auspices of and in the presence of [PA] Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh.
According to a statement issued by the [PA] prime minister’s office, these agreements are an implementation of the memorandum of understanding that the Palestinian [PA] government signed with the international donors in order to enlist support for the Municipal Development and Lending Fund.
The first agreement was signed on behalf of the Palestinian side by [PA] Minister of Finance Shukri Bishara and [PA] Minister of Local Authorities and Head of the Municipal Development and Lending Fund’s Board of Directors Majdi Al-Saleh, and on behalf of the World Bank by World Bank Local Director and Representative in the West Bank and Gaza Strip Kanthan Shankar, in the presence of Municipal Development and Lending Fund Director-General Tawfiq Al-Budeiri.
According to the agreement, $10 million will be designated as additional funding for improving the emergency services of the municipalities in the Gaza Strip, and a sum of $5 million will be designated from the [World Bank] Multi-donor Trust Fund for cooperation to develop the infrastructures and capabilities of the municipalities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The second agreement – worth 10 million euros as additional funding for the Municipal Development Program (the third stage) [parentheses in source] – was signed on behalf of the Palestinian side by Minister of Finance Shukri Bishara, and on behalf of the French side by French Consul [General] Pierre Cochard and Director of the French Development Agency in Palestine Catherine Bonnaud.
Prime Minister Shtayyeh said: ‘We have a great need for this aid in this unusual situation, which includes the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in order to complete the building and development of the Palestinian institutions’ capabilities on the way to building the state, the Palestinian state on the 1967 borders – and not the State of Gaza, and not a state without Gaza.’”