Finance Minister, World Bank Country Director Visit Afar Region of Ethiopia

March 28, 2022 (FBC) – Minister of Finance Ahmed Shide, accompanied by World Bank Country Director for Ethiopia, Sudan, S. Sudan and Eritrea Ousmane Dione, held a two-day visit to Afar region and met with the President of the region Awol Arba.

During the visit the delegation has discussed emergency support for recovery from the recent conflict and management of recurrent flood-related risks with the regional President.

The Minister, together with the regional President, also visited cotton and wheat fields as well as the Tendaho Irrigation Dam, which has been built to enhance productivity toward commodity import substitution, according to ENA.

During the visit, the Minister updated regional authorities about the upcoming 300 million USD World Bank Response, Recovery, Resilience for Conflict-Affected Communities Project.

The supports affected regions with urgent reconstruction of damaged infrastructure, basic service provision for internally displaced people, and psychosocial and clinical support to conflict-affected women.

In his remarks, he indicated more efforts are underway to ensure adequate recovery support across the country.

He also reminded the authorities that reconstruction interventions will be prioritized based on the multisectoral conflict damage and needs assessment and recovery plan currently under preparation covering all affected regions, coordinated by the Ministry of Finance, and supported by development partners.

The World Bank Country Director discussed the new integrated disaster risk management (DRM) project currently under preparation, which focuses on prevention-oriented watershed management intervention (including on the Awash River in Afar) to mitigate flooding, and institutional capacity strengthening activities to comprehensively address disasters.

The Country Director emphasized the importance of flood mitigation infrastructure, disaster preparedness, and readiness in advance of adverse natural events, to reduce their impacts and ensure resilient and rapid recovery following disasters.

Furthermore, the regional President took the Minister to visit wheat farm sites. Based on wheat self-sufficiency roadmap for Ethiopia’s future program, the Afar region, much like other regions in the country, is playing its role toward reduction of wheat imports through enhanced local production.