The Centre and the Bihar government have signed a $290 million credit agreement with the World Bank under the state’s rural development project ‘JEEViKA-II’. The new project would cover 300 new blocks in 32 districts. Bihar Transformative Development Project, also known as Jeevika II, will mobilise rural population into self-help groups (SHG) and higher level federations and help them gain access to markets, public services and a range of financial services from formal financial institutions, the World Bank said.
- The Bihar government has been implementing the Bihar Rural Livelihoods Project (JEEViKA), a World Bank supported programme for poverty alleviation, across six districts and 42 blocks of Bihar since 2007.
- The credit agreement for the project was signed by Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Finance Raj Kumar on behalf of government of India, Rural Development Department Secretary Arvind Kumar Chaudhary on behalf of government of Bihar, and World Bank’s Program Leader and Acting Country Director John Blomquist.
- The new project will scale up farm and non-farm value chain interventions including setting up of women-owned farmer producer companies.
- The credit is from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s concessionary lending arm, with a maturity of 25 years, including a 5-year grace period, the World Bank said.
About Bihar Rural Livelihoods Project – “JEEViKA”
The project objective is to enhance social and economic empowerment of the rural poor in Bihar. The project has 4 components:
- Community Institution Development will build and strengthen primary and federated social and economic community institutions.
- Community Investment Fund involves transfer of financial and technical resources to the Community Based Organizations on a demand driven basis for use as a catalyst to improve their livelihoods
- Technical Assistance Fund will improve quantity and quality of service provision by public, cooperative, community and private service providers.
The fund will also promote use of Public-Private Partnerships in improving the supply of key support services for the community organizations and federations in the areas of institution building, finance and livelihoods enhancement
