World Bank transfers $31.6m in budget support to Palestinian authority

The World Bank transferred Wednesday $31.6 million to the Palestinian Authority from the Palestinian Reform and Development Plan Trust Fund (PRDP-MDTF), a multi-donor budget support mechanism administered by the Bank, according to a World Bank press release. The funds contributed by the governments of Australia, the United Kingdom and Japan will help support the urgent budget needs of the Palestinian Authority, providing interalia support for education, health care and other vital social services for the Palestinian people and for the economic reforms currently underway, it said. The World Bank PRDP Trust Fund was established on April 10, 2008, through an agreement signed between the World Bank and the Palestinian Authority during the 2008 World Bank-IMF Spring Meetings. It is a central component of a World Bank’s effort to support the ongoing Palestinian Reform and Development Plan. Currently, the PRDP-MDTF donors are the governments of Australia, France, Kuwait, Norway, the United Kingdom, and Japan. With the new tranche release, the PRDP-MDTF will have disbursed about $1 billion.