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Education gets $50m IDB grant

Published:Friday | November 25, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Street vendors sell their wares next to a building damaged by the earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Wednesday, November 23. An ambitious reconstruction panel, co-chaired by former US President Bill Clinton, was created three months after the January 2010 earthquake to coordinate efforts to rebuild Haiti after the quake destroyed much of the capital and surrounding area, throwing more than a million homeless into huge, squalid resettlement camps. Almost two years after an earthquake devastated Haiti, less than half the $4.6 billion in pledged aid has been distributed and political squabbling is threatening to bring coordinated reconstruction efforts to an abrupt halt. - ap

PORT-AU-PRINCE (CMC):

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) announced yesterday the approval of a US$50-million grant to support the education reform Haiti launched in 2010, seeking to expand access to free, quality education for all Haitian children.

"The IDB has offered to support the ambitious five-year plan with US$250 million from its own resources and to raise US$250 million more from other donors," the bank said in a statement. "Among other goals, the reform calls for the construction of thousands of schools, training tens of thousands of teachers and free education for millions of children."

An initial grant for US$50 million was approved last November and the IDB has worked to enlist other international agencies, bilateral donors, philanthropic institutions and companies interested in supporting education in Haiti after last year's devastating earthquake.

Counting the financial assistance provided by the IDB and its partners, the support now involves about $150 million.

Haiti's Ministry of Education and its Economic and Social Assistance Fund are the executing agencies of the new grant, which will contribute to expanding children's access to schools, improve the quality of education, and expand vocational training.