WASHINGTON, April 26, 2017 — The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors today approved a project that will support Kenya and the Horn of Africa to lessen the human and economic impacts of conflict and violence particularly among communities that host refugees.
The Development Response to Displacement Impacts Project (DRDIP II) will improve access to basic social services, expand economic opportunities, and enhance environmental management for communities hosting refugees in Garissa, Turkana and Wajir counties in the northern and northeastern parts of Kenya. It will provide integrated area based support for refugee hosting locations in these three counties by reconstructing and rehabilitating critical socioeconomic infrastructure and more importantly by endeavoring to contain regional spillovers of conflicts. The project is aligned with the World Bank’s global strategy and IDA priority to address forced displacement and refugees that assists host communities to better manage the shocks and impacts of the refugee presence.
“The World Bank recognizes that protecting the poor and displaced from fragility and violence is a key development challenge of this decade,” said Diarietou Gaye, World Bank Country Director for Kenya. “We believe that this project will enable communities that have historically hosted refugees in northern and north eastern Kenya build their resilience to cope and set them on a firm path towards socioeconomic recovery.”
The project has five key components: social and economic services and infrastructure, environmental and natural resource management, livelihoods program, project management that includes monitoring and evaluation as well as knowledge sharing, and support to the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) for expansion of the regional secretariat on forced displacement and mixed migration. DRDIP II will ensure that citizens participate in the process of identifying and prioritizing their development needs. This will include expanding socioeconomic services and infrastructure and livelihood opportunities to improve self-reliance among refugee-hosting communities, improve social cohesion between refugees and host communities, increase the voices and roles of citizens in decision-making regarding development; and eliciting greater demand for social accountability.
“The DRDIP II will provide a local government led response to address impacts of forced displacement and utilize a community driven development approach that supports communities and their grassroots institutions to spearhead their socioeconomic development in partnership with the government,” said Vara Vemuru, Task Team Leader.
The project will target communities in refugee hosting areas that have seen protracted presence of refugees with project investments potentially benefitting both host and refugee communities. The project beneficiaries include a total host population of 1,041.436 and a total refugee population of 439,461 in Turkana, Wajir and Garissa counties. The project will be implemented by the Executive office of the President through the Department for Development of Arid and Semi-Arid Regions.
DRDIP II is the second phase of DRDIP in the Horn of Africa (HOA) which was approved on May 2016 to address the spillover effects of conflict and forced displacement for three refugee-hosting countries of Djibouti, Ethiopia and Uganda. Kenya has joined the DRDIP through a Series of Project (SoP) window that allows other countries within the HOA to opt into the DRDIP at a later date.
The total cost of the project is $103 million financed by an International Development Agency (IDA)* credit of $100 to Kenya and an IDA Grant of $3 million to the Intergovernmental Development Authority (IGAD)
The program is fully aligned with the World Bank Group’s Kenya Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) and it also supports the World Bank Group’s twin goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity.
* The World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), established in 1960, helps the world’s poorest countries by providing grants and low to zero-interest loans for projects and programs that boost economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve poor people’s lives. IDA is one of the largest sources of assistance for the world’s 77 poorest countries, 39 of which are in Africa. Resources from IDA bring positive change to the 1.3 billion people who live in IDA countries. Since 1960, IDA has supported development work in 112 countries. Annual commitments have averaged about $19 billion over the last three years, with about 50 percent going to Africa.
