The World Bank has approved 60 million U.S. dollars credit to assist Kenya's emergency drought recovery efforts in arid and semi arid areas.

In a statement issued in Nairobi on Friday, the bank said 20 million dollars would reimburse the government for audited amounts it has spent on non-food emergency drought response.

The Bretton Wood institution said an additional 40 million dollars would support long-term livelihood investments, such as new and improved water supplies, natural resource management activities

"By extending this credit, we are addressing urgent needs arising from the recent drought emergency," World Bank's Country Director for Kenya, Colin Bruce, said.

"Our intervention is designed to save lives and livelihoods by scaling up a successful existing project with a proven, effective governance and implementation framework," he added.

The bank's project is designed to scale up and broaden support for affected Kenyan communities while also reinforcing community oversight and local decision making structures.

"This credit will provide additional financing to the second phase of the Arid Lands Resource Management Project (ALRMP), which has already helped improve the lives of over one million people in 22 districts," it said.

While approving the credit, the bank said the Board of Directors noted the progress Kenya has made in drought preparedness, recovery efforts and mitigation strategies through more than a decade of partnership in the arid lands, involving the government, the bank and other stakeholders.

"Board members also noted the strong community accountability mechanisms that the Arid Lands project has established, as well as the array of safeguards against fraud and corruption that are built into project design and monitoring to ensure that funds are properly utilized," the statement said.

"These include timely monitoring and feedback of project funding decisions and physical implementation at the community, district and national level," it added.

The short rains of 2005, which followed five consecutive seasons of poor rains in many parts of Kenya, have affected nearly 3.5 million rural pastoral and farming people, including half a million school children in 25 districts.

Source: Xinhua