Announcement of Madagascar: World Bank Approves US10 Million Dollars For The Second Community Nutrition Project Additional Financing on November 21, 2006

Madagascar: World Bank Approves US$10 Million For The Second Community Nutrition Project Additional Financing Contacts: In Washington: John Donaldson (202) 473 1367 jdonaldson@worldbank.org; In Madagascar: Jocelyn Rafidinarivo (261-20) 225 6000 jrafidinarivo@worldbank.org Washington, November 21, 2006 – The World Bank Board of Executive Directors today approved an International Development Association (IDA) additional credit* of US$10 million to support the Second Community Nutrition Project for the implementation of the Government of Madagascar’s National Nutrition Policy (PNN). The objectives of the Additional Credit for the Second Nutrition Project are to help continue the previous actions to reduce chronic malnutrition among children under three and improve the nutritional status of school-aged children and pregnant and lactating women in targeted project areas. It will also help to ensure the financial sustainability of activities financed until now. The Government of Madagascar will finance the functioning of the community nutrition sites. “The National Nutrition Policy recognizes the need of a coherent institutional framework to ensure adequate policy guidance, coordination, monitoring and evaluation and the execution of nutrition activities in a sustainable manner. The Government of Madagascar moved rapidly and effectively by creating the National Nutrition Council and the National Nutrition Office. Further efforts are now under way to finalize this institutionalization,” said Montserrat Meiro-Lorenzo, the World Bank Task Team Leader for the project. The Project will be implemented through four components: the Community Nutrition Program, the School Nutrition Program, Institutionalization of the National Nutrition Policy (PNN) and Information Education Communication (IEC), Training and Project Management. “The results of a recent impact evaluation of the current Nutrition Program show a decrease of 10% in underweight children under three in sites that had been with the program for twoyears,” said James Bond, Acting Country Manager for Madagascar. “Projections suggest that the proposed scaling- up, financed by this IDA Credit, will likely allow Madagascar to achieve the nutrition Millennium Development Goals (MDG) target by 2015.” ### For more information on the World Bank’s work in sub-Saharan Africa visit: http://www.worldbank.org/afr For more information on the World Bank’s work in Madagascar visit: www.worldbank.org/mg For more information please visit the project site *The credit is on standard International Development Association (IDA) terms, with a commitment fee of 0.5 percent and a service charge of 0.75 percent. The period of maturity is 40 years, including a 10-year period of grace.