World Bank provides cash transfers for vulnerable groups and nutritional supplements to new and expecting mothers in Moldova

The World Bank board of directors on August 11 approved a grant of US$7 million in additional financing to help Moldova address the challenges of the ongoing food crisis.

According to the WB, the additional financing to the Moldova Health Services and Social Assistance Project aims to improve nutrition among new and expecting mothers, infants and children and to provide cash transfers to social institutions which provide food to children, the elderly, and other vulnerable groups to compensate for food price increases during the upcoming 2008/2009 winter season. The focus of nutrition interventions would be on protein energy malnutrition caused by inadequate intake of quantity of calories and protein.

“This financing provides some badly needed support to people who are being hit hardest by the sharp increase in food prices,” said Melanie Marlett, World Bank Country Manager for Moldova. “By targeting the most vulnerable groups, we’re hoping to ensure that an increase in food costs won’t mean a decrease in the health of the poorest Moldovans.”

“The cost of food in Moldova, like everywhere else, is increasing sharply,” said Rekha Menon, Senior Economist for the World Bank in Moldova. “This is a big challenge in a country that already has approximately 28% of its citizens living in poverty. The rising food costs are generally hurting the country’s poor disproportionately more, because they spend a larger proportion of their incomes on food, and are more dependent on wage incomes and transfers.”

Tentative estimates indicate that with food inflation at 24%, Moldova could face a 13% increase in poverty rates, further exacerbating the challenge of ensuring access to food by the poor. A particular and direct nutritional challenge is represented by the situation of institutionalized groups, including children and elderly, who currently live on a ration valued at less than two dollars per day.

The grant will be made available to Moldova under the World Bank’s US$1.2 billion Global Fast-Track Facility for Food Crisis launched at the end of May. The new facility is designed to address the immediate needs of the most vulnerable countries through support to social safety nets, school feeding programs, food production, and other interventions.//REPORTER.MD

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