The world's 81 poorest nations will now get more aid. The development fund of the World Bank's (wb's ) International Development Association for providing aid to these countries was recently raised from us $23 billion to us $34 billion. This is the biggest increase in funding for the programme in the last two decades. The move followed the richest nations deciding to increase their contributions to the programme and resolve their differences over the form of aid: the poorest countries will get grants while those who can pay back will get loans. The money will be disbursed over a period of three years, beginning July 2005. New parameters have been adopted to assess the development achieved by aid recipients.
"We are very, very pleased with this outcome," said wb's Geoff Lamb, chairperson of the negotiations held on February 22, 2005. France, Britain, Spain and the Nordic countries raised their contributions the most. Earlier, Europe had rejected a us proposal to give half of the aid as grants on the ground that repayment of loans was a crucial source of future aid.
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