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The World Bank grant funding to Zimbabwe is not going through the government, a World Bank official has said. In an interview with Reuters, a senior World Bank official said the grant funding to Zimbabwe was not going through the government, which has yet to demonstrate to the international community it can manage the economy with prudence and transparency. The government has got to regain the trust of the international community first.

A quote from rueters:

World Bank Vice President for Africa, Obiageli Ezekwesili, told Reuters some $22 million in grants from the Bank were being spent on behalf of donors through international agencies, aid and church groups to help small farmers and the poor.

Media reports this week said the World Bank would make its first grant available to the Zimbabwe government since 2001, signalling the institution was re-engaging with the bankrupt southern African country.

Ezekwesili denied the reports, saying the World Bank was not lending to Zimbabwe’s government.

“It’s not money going directly through the government of Zimbabwe,” Ezekwesili said in an interview. “We don’t have the basis for such an engagement yet.”

“The policy of international financial institutions is that there first has to be a re-engagement,” she added.

Such a step would require the new unity government of President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to develop a credible programme to rebuild the country’s economy and implement reforms.

“Key is the whole area of public financial management, of how the public sector operates and dealing with governance issues, which is going to be very critical,” said Ezekwesili.

Also important to normalising relations with donors and securing financing is for Zimbabwe to clear its arrears with the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and African Development Bank.

As of April 2009, Zimbabwe was $673 million in arrears to the World Bank, $140 million to the IMF and $430 million to the African Development Bank.

The new Unity government of Zimbabwe needs to do more in rebuilding international relations. They have to regain the trusts of the international community and that involves sorting out all those outstanding issues in the unity government.

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