World Bank announces winners of the Third Annual Competition

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The winners of the World Bank’s third annual ‘Improving the Lives of People in Europe and Central Asia’ 2010 event have been announced by World Bank Vice President Philippe Le Houerou. This year the award goes to projects that show both innovation and concrete results on the ground, such as building roads to connect rural communities with markets and urban areas in Armenia, improving the land titling system in FYR Macedonia, expanding health insurance coverage and improving access to health services in Turkey, and protecting the health and nutrition of the poor in the Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, and Tajikistan in the face of the recent global food price shocks.

“Improving the Lives of People in Europe and Central Asia is at the heart of the World Bank’s support to our client countries,” said Philippe Le Houerou, World Bank Vice President for Europe and Central Asia. “We have the great privilege and responsibility of helping governments to overcome poverty and promote growth. The winners of this year’s competition demonstrate real results, including job growth, establishment of small businesses and improved enterprise access to financing, improved health care and health protection and rehabilitated water and irrigation systems that have increased crop yields, just to name a few.”

Le Houerou stressed that “as we support our clients to deliver results, it is critical that these are measured and monitored. Only by knowing what has been achieved through our interventions can our clients make better decisions and steer development efforts to improve the lives of their people.”

This year’s twelve winners range from traditional World Bank projects to innovative knowledge products that highlight key developmental objectives, including improving people’s well being, supporting communities, and addressing crises and crisis responses.

The winners are (listed in alphabetical order by country):

• Armenia Rural Enterprise and Small Scale Commercial Agriculture Development Project
• Armenia Lifeline Road Improvement Project
• Azerbaijan Rural Investment Project
• Bulgaria Policy Notes
• Georgia Joint Needs Assessment, Donors Conference, and Progress Report
• Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, and Tajikistan Food Crisis Response Projects
• Latvia Safety Net and Social Reform Special Development Policy Loan
• Macedonia Real Estate Cadastre and Registration
• Russia Health Reform Implementation Project
• Tajikistan Community Agriculture and Watershed Management Project
• Turkey - Support to the Turkey Health Transformation Program
• Ukraine Programmatic Financial Rehabilitation Development Policy Loan 1

The third annual celebration of results to recognize the winners will take place on June 3, 2010, in Washington, DC.