By Taban Henry
The World Bank on Friday approved $70 million grant in pursuits to boost socio-economic endeavours of women in South Sudan.
World Bank’s Country Manager in South Sudan, Firas Raad said that the fundings’ goal is to back female entrepreneurs in formalizing and scaling up their business activities.
In addition, the WB Country Manager stated that the money would help survivours of gender-based violence (GBV), access to vital services that can aid them to recover and rebuild their lives.
Mr. Raad also said that South Sudanese women should assist their families and communities by engaging in entrepreneurial activities; however, their progress has often been constrained by mixtures of prevailing social norms, institutional impediments and insufficient access to education, training, business services and access to financing.
“I am proud to announce this morning that a new 70 million dollars grant from the World Bank board of Directors approved to finance government led project in boosting women social and economic empowerment in South Sudan,” said the WB Country Director.
Similarly, Raad further said that the project is in line with the recent shift in the country’s approach towards government led implementation to promote economic empowerment of women in the country.
He said the SSWSEEP is a four-year project that will be implemented by the South Sudan Ministry of Gender Child and Social Welfare.
Mr. Raad revealed that the project will target approximately 91,000 women, 5200 adolescent girls; but indirectly reach to 673,400 persons.
“The project comprises four components that aim at holistically addressing the specific challenges affecting the growth and development of women in South Sudan, which include; community-based socio-economic empowerment of women; and supporting institutional strengthening and project management,” Raad added.
Raad said the project include; a cross-cutting focus on women and youth to help reduce fragility, facilitates peace building and promote inclusive development in the country.
Besides, he said that the project aimed at approaches to strengthening public sectors’ capacity to engage actively in the area of women’s empowerment to ensure long-term benefit of women and girls.
“Survivours of Gender-based violence require substantial support to recover from the physical and psychological trauma that they have endured. This project will help expand their access to vital health services and psychological support that will work on strengthening the prevention of GBV. It will also help women to grow their businesses and improve their livelihoods by providing grants, training and technical assistance,” Mr. Raad explained.