Good news for Malagasy peasants: The PSDR Project is going to pursue its activities

The World Bank’s rural development project (PSDR) can pursue its activities. Considered by the World Bank as a project having a humanitarian aspect since directly benefiting the population, PSDR has been allowed to continue working, and thus, getting funds. Indeed, the additional fund of 30 million US dollars, which was granted by the World Bank in 2008 but suspended since the beginning of the crisis, has just been released.

In the field, the PSDR coordinators are already preparing the pursuit of activities by hiring technicians in each region where the PSDR project is supposed to be established. “Recently, delegates from the World Bank have come to Madagascar in order to study the technical aspects in the pursuit of PSDR”, declared one of PSDR’s local managers. It is worth noting that since the beginning of the crisis in 2009, a large number of projects and financial aids from the World Bank has been suspended or even cancelled, except for a few ones working humanitarian purposes, including the program struggling against AIDS and HIV, food safety program, environment protection program, mother and child nutrition program, and of course, rural development program. Despite their limited numbers, these projects still represent huge investment opportunities for Madagascar, amounting about 82 million US dollars.

In spite of the international non-recognition of the current regime, the PSDR project will be able to continue its activities in the Great Island. And the pursuit of the project is really a good news for Malagasy peasants who greatly suffered from the suspension of PSDR’s technical, material and especially financial assistance to their agricultural projects. Actually, since its creation, the PSDR project has been able to finance up to 9.000 peasants’ small projects with an investment amount of 86 million US dollars. And the recently released additional fund will held PSDR to finance 2.160 more.