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By Libya Herald reporter.
Tunis, 19 October 2017:
The French government has given a further $1 million to the Libya Stabilisation Facility to support a number of projects across the country.
It is the second French donation. Last year, when it was started, France contributed a similar $1 million.
With this latest donation, the fund, administered by the UNDP, has now raised just over $36 million of its $40 million target. All of it has come from non-Libyan sources. There was initially a promise from the Presidency Council that it would match foreign giving, but so far nothing has materialised. UNDP sources now say they are in discussions with other donors in regard to the remaining $4-million shortfall.
The facility provides funding for a number of small to medium-sized reconstruction and development projects that would normally expect to receive Libya state support were the state agencies in a position to give it. So far projects supported have been in places particularly affected by fighting at various points in the past three years – Benghazi, Kikla, Sebha and Sirte. These have included ambulances and solar panels for hospitals, garbage trucks for municipalities and the rehabilitation of schools, electrical substations and a court building. Last week, as UN deputy special envoy Maria do Valle Ribeiro noted in today’s short ceremony to mark the new French donation, Al-Fath school in Sirte was reopened as a result of reconstruction work paid for by the facility. It was badly damaged during last year’s fighting.
The facility, Ribeiro also divulged, is also now extending its remit to projects in Bani Walid and the Tripoli area.
It was supposed to finish next year, but the UN Security Council last week indicated that there will be a new two-year round with fresh funding.
Today’s ceremony handing over the $1 million to the UNDP was attended by the director of technical cooperation at the planning ministry, Esam Garbaa. It took place at the French embassy to Libya currently based in Tunis.
