WASHINGTON, USA - The World Bank Board of Directors on Tuesday approved three loans for Jamaica, totalling US$65 million, to support the country's efforts to strengthen its social safety net, improve services for young children and their parents, and support HIV/AIDS prevention and control.

The three loans are repayable in 30 years and include a five-year grace period.

"The World Bank is pleased to continue supporting the Government's social and economic development strategy by investing in projects that promote equal opportunities for all Jamaicans," Yvonne Tsikata, World Bank country director for the Caribbean, said in a release from the institution.

"These projects, which are at the core of the country's development strategy, seek to improve the efficiency of social assistance programmes, provide children better access to and quality of education and health services, and support services to prevent new HIV infections and provide treatment and care for people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS," she added.

The first US$40-million loan for the Social Protection Project will strengthen the country's social insurance and social assistance system by supporting the following activities:

. Improve the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH). This component will co-finance conditional cash transfers to children 0 to 19 years old (child grants) and technical improvements to the programme.

. Expand the "Steps-to-Work" programme, a new initiative referring working-age members of PATH-eligible households to employment services. The programme will begin as a two-year pilot and will target approximately 12,000 people.

. Reform public sector pension schemes and improve administration and information systems.

. Develop a holistic social protection strategy by supporting diagnostic studies, building consensus for reforms and writing a strategy paper outlining reform options.

Since its launch in 2002, the PATH - a cash transfer programme that provides benefits on the condition that children attend school and visit health centres periodically - has become Jamaica's flagship social assistance programme providing cash transfers to almost 230,000 beneficiaries in 2007.

The World Bank's support will allow the government to increase the benefit level by 23 per cent to adjust for inflation, to increase grants for secondary school students by up to 75 per cent, to stimulate grade progression and high school completion, and to give a one-time bonus to students moving to tertiary education or training. It also will expand benefit coverage by 50 per cent to reach approximately 14 per cent of the population, the equivalent of the country's poverty rate in 2007. The increase in benefits also addresses loss of purchasing power of PATH benefits due to the sharp increase in food prices and the need to compensate families for the increasing opportunity cost of schooling.

Early Childhood Development Project

The second loan for US$15 million will co-finance the implementation of Jamaica's National Strategic Plan for Early Childhood Development, which seeks to improve outcomes through:

. Effective parenting education and support for early childhood development;

. Effective preventive health care for 0 to six-year-olds;

. Early and effective screening, diagnosis and early intervention for at-risk children and households;

. Safe, student-centred, well-maintained early childhood facilities; and

. Effective curriculum delivery by trained early childhood practitioners.

The loan also will strengthen organisations, policies, norms and practices governing Early Childhood Development.

HIV/AIDS Project

The third loan for US$10 million will help implement the Government's National HIV/AIDS Programme by supporting prevention efforts targeted at high-risk groups and the general population; increasing access to treatment, care and support services for infected and affected individuals; and strengthening the national HIV/AIDS programme management capacity and supporting analysis to identify priorities for building the capacity of the health sector to respond to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and other priority health problems.

This is a follow-on project to the ongoing Bank-funded Jamaica HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Project, which is scheduled to close on May 31, 2008.

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