Bangladesh gets $858m in World Bank loans to improve food security, road safety

The credit is from the World Bank’s International Development Association and has a 30-year term, including a five-year grace period

Bangladesh and the World Bank have signed two financing agreements totaling $858 million to enhance climate-resilient agricultural growth, food security, and improve road safety.

The credit is from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) and has a 30-year term, including a five-year grace period, the Washington-based lender said in a statement.

The $500 million Programme on Agricultural and Rural Transformation for Nutrition, Entrepreneurship, and Resilience (PARTNER) will help transform the agriculture sector by promoting crop diversification, food safety, and climate resilience across agri-food systems of Bangladesh, according to the World Bank.

Underlining the lender's commitment to helping the South Asian nation overcome barriers to sustainable and inclusive green growth, World Bank's Country Director for Bangladesh Abdoulaye Seck said, “Bangladesh has made remarkable development and economic growth since independence."

"New frontiers of challenges, like increasing climate change impacts, now call for urgent actions."

The $358 million Road Safety Project -- which is the first dedicated road safety project in South Asia supported by the World Bank -- is designed to help the country improve road safety and reduce deaths and injuries from road traffic crashes in selected high-risk highways and district roads.

In two national highways -- N4 (Gazipur-Elenga) and N6 (Natore to Nawabganj) -- the project will pilot comprehensive road safety measures, including improved engineering designs, signing and marking, pedestrian facilities, speed enforcement, and emergency care.

“These two projects will be important to help the country remain on a sustainable growth path through boosting climate-resilient agricultural productivity and enhancing the income of hundreds and thousands of farmers as well as protect the people and the economy from the loss caused by untimely deaths, disabilities, and injuries resulting from road crashes,” said Seck.

The initiatives will also contribute to Bangladesh's vision of achieving upper-middle income status by 2031, according to Sharifa Khan, secretary of the Economic Relations Division.

The PARTNER project will also receive a $43 million co-financing from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).