New projects and financing from the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund (PBF), which seeks to help countries emerging from conflict to avoid slipping back into war, have been approved for both Cote d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone, the United Nations announced Thursday.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has endorsed the additional allocation of 5 million U.S. dollars from the fund for reintegration projects in Cote d'Ivoire, UN spokesperson Marie Okabe told reporters in New York.
The money will also be put towards supporting facilitation efforts under last year's Ouagadougou Agreement, which was reached to end the protracted political stand-off in the West African country between the Government and the rebel Forces Nouvelles.
Okabe said that most of the funds will most be used to support reintegration efforts, including counselling, income generation, micro-projects for former combatants and centers for skills training.
The PBF Steering Committee for Sierra Leone has approved seven new projects worth nearly 17 million U.S. dollars to support the empowerment of women and children, reforms, rehabilitation of the corrections system and bolstering prisoners' living conditions.
The further funding brings the total value of PBF projects approved to 32 million U.S. dollars. Source:Xinhua
|