Having received the approval of the European Development Fund (EDF) Committee, the Commission has decided to grant ECU 43.8 million of financing for the six projects described below: * Guinea-Bissau: ECU 12 000 000 - Infrastructure rehabilitation * Benin: ECU 11 846 000 - Support for health-care policy * Congo: ECU 10 000 000 - Promotion of SME * East Africa: ECU 6 160 000 - Tsetse fly eradication programme * Madagascar: ECU 2 250 000 - Slaughterhouse equipment programme * Burkina Faso: ECU 1 600 000 - Road maintenance study - - - GUINEA-BISSAU Infrastructure rehabilitation Fifth, sixth and seventh EDFs ECU 12 000 000 GRANT This infrastructure programme costs ECU 12 million and is intended to improve communications, especially in Eastern Province where the Community is already financing other (particularly rural development) schemes. The projected work will ensure a more regular flow of goods and agricultural products between the rural centres and the towns, particularly during the rainy season. It will also break down the isolation of some of the inhabitants and cushion the effects of the country's current structural adjustment drive. The programme, coordinated with the IBRD programme for this sector, is parallel financing for the following sections for which the Government has applied to the European Community: - construction of two secondary bridges at Tchuru Brick and Contuboel; - technical support and equipment for road maintenance whereby private firms can be set up in the sector; - supply of a ferryboat and the construction of access ramps at Ché- Ché. BENIN Support for health-care policy Seventh EDF ECU 11 846 000 GRANT The project provides for a package of public health measures aimed at consolidating the sectoral policy established under the second Lomé Convention. Support provided centrally in the form of staff and logistical assistance will seek to improve management (planning, administrative, financial and personnel management) and will allow efficient supervision of activities in the departments (regions). At department level, activities will concentrate on: - support provided in the form of staff and logistical assistance for the department health authorities, to help improve their ability to implement and arrange implementation of health-care policy and translate into action the government's desire for decentralization; - rehabilitating and equipping existing health-care facilities (department hospitals, sub-prefecture/urban health centres, local health centres). CONGO Promotion of SME Sixth and seventh EDFs ECU 10 000 000 GRANT Towards the end of the 1980s, the Congolese government decided to change its economic policy, and made the development of the private sector one of its main priorities. This new orientation was subsequently confirmed in the National Indicative Programme. The purpose of this project is to provide promotion and direct credit facilities. Working with the existing private sector support organizations, financial institutions and professional bodies, the aim will be to create an environment in which small businesses can flourish. EAST AFRICA Tsetse fly eradication Seventh EDF ECU 6 160 000 GRANT The aim of the programme is to help boost output in Africa, in the interests of self-sufficiency in food and generation of income, by creating and implementing ecologically viable and culturally acceptable tsetse-fly eradication schemes. The research will be being conducted by ICIPE (the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology), in collaboration with a number of laboratories, universities and research institutes in developing and developed countries. ICIPE will also strengthen its links with several national agricultural research institutes, in order to provide access to various ecological environments in which to test its techniques, and to transfer technology in an interactive manner. MADAGASCAR Slaughterhouse equipment programme Sixth EDF ECU 2 250 000 GRANT Madagascar has considerable livestock potential (10 million head of cattle), which the Government sees as an important means of boosting the nutritional level of the population. The state of the existing slaughterhouses is disastrous. In 53% of the towns there are no facilities whatsoever and, in the majority of the towns which do have slaughterhouses, the design of the buildings and the slaughtering techniques defy all rules of hygiene. The idea of the pilot project is to build seven slaughterhouses of different categories in towns in the focal areas of Lomé IV, the North- West and South, so that private operators can supply healthy meat from slaughterhouses rented from municipal authorities under new legislation which suits the demands of modern slaughter facilities. BURKINA FASO Road maintenance study Seventh EDF ECU 1 600 000 GRANT The aim of this project is to prepare studies needed for regular maintenance of asphalt roads. The ultimate goal is to maintain, reinforce and resurface approximately 1050km of asphalt roads. The project will cover the following trunk routes: - East-West (Pléga-Ouagadougou-Bobo Dioulasso-Côte d'Ivoire border); - the road into Ghana (Ouagadougou-Ghanaian border); - the road West into Mali (Bobo Dioulasso-Faramana-Malian border). * * *
