Liberia First Resilient and Inclusive Growth Development Policy Financing

Liberia’s vulnerability to frequent natural disasters, including floods, disease outbreaks, and health crises, has hampered macroeconomic stability and derailed progress on inclusive growth. This development policy financing (DPF) operation with a Catastrophe Deferred Drawdown Option (Cat DDO) is the first in a proposed programmatic series of three. This proposed financing is an International Development Association (IDA) credit of US40 million dollars with a Cat DDO of US20.0 million dollars. US 5 million dollars equivalent is from the Crisis Response Window (CRW) to the Republic of Liberia. The operation is closely aligned with the objectives of the new government’s forthcoming development strategy, known as the Agriculture, Roads, Rule of Law, Sanitation, and Tourism (ARREST) Agenda for Inclusive Development (AAID), and the World Bank Group’s (WBG) Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for Liberia. The Cat DDO of this operation will help by providing immediate liquidity in the event of a natural disaster or health emergency while, in parallel, strengthening the ongoing risk reduction efforts supported by this operation.