World Bank and Honduran President Work to Meet MDGs through US$4.5m Grant

The World Bank and President Manuel Zelaya Rosales work to meet Millennium Development Goals in Honduras through US$4.5M Output Based Aid grant

Tegucigalpa, Honduras – June 19, 2007 - The President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya Rosales formally signed a US$4,500,000 grant agreement today with the World Bank’s Global Partnership on Output Based Aid (GPOBA) to establish a fund for improving water and sanitation services available to poor communities throughout Honduras. In this latest effort to help meet the World Bank’s Millennium Development Goals, GPOBA will partner with the Honduran Fund for Social Investment (Fondo Hondureño de Inversió Social, or FHIS) to create a framework for contributions from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), The Netherlands Ministry of Development Cooperation (DGIS) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) - a member of the World Bank Group. The grant will provide the financial means to develop a Honduran Output Based Aid (OBA) facility that is expected to support projects benefiting approximately 40,000 poor households.