Three grant Agreements totally amounting to 53 million euro (approximately 1.2 billion birr) were signed today February 16, 2012 between the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the European Commission at the ceremony held in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MOFED).

The first grant agreement, which is amounting to 45 million Euros, is going to be utilized to finance Protection of Basic Service Program II (PBSII) that will contribute to expand the provision and improve the quality of basic services; such as primary and secondary education, health, agriculture, water and sanitation, and rural roads in all over the country. 

Furthermore, in the second grant agreement, the European Commission allocated 6 million euro to Civil Society Fund II (CSF-II) aiming at contributing towards further building the capacity of Non-State Actors so that they could play their role in the country’s development and democratization process.

The remaining 2 million Euro balance will be used for the implementation of Technical Cooperation Facility IV so as  to facilitate the Government’s development strategy through the support of sound development programs financed from the European Development Fund.

At the signing ceremony H.E Ato Sufian Ahmed said that the European Union has been a major development partner to Ethiopia for the past 36 years and the three grant agreements, which have been signed currently have an overall objective of contributing towards to the attainments of the Growth and Transformation Plan and the Millennium Development Goals that Ethiopia is looking forward to achieve in the near future.

H.E. Mrs. Francesca Mosca on her part expressed that European Union is proud to be supporting the Protection of Basic Services program for it supports the ongoing expansion of basic services and for the attainment of the MDGs.