By Judith Ugwumadu | 25 November 2013

The World Bank has approved a $3m grant to help the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu rebuild its financial reserves and deliver more effective health and education services.

The funding will support Tuvalu’s new development policy, which aims to strengthen government accounting, revenue management and budget execution, as well as improve project management in local councils to enable the timely provision of public services in the outer islands.

Franz Drees-Gross, country director for the World Bank in the Pacific Islands, said: ‘This support is designed to help strengthen fiscal sustainability and deliver quality health and education services that meet the needs of Tuvalu’s people.’

The grant would also support efforts for more investment in primary and secondary education and the ongoing work to strengthen medical treatment and scholarship programmes, with a focus on improving patient management processes and course completion rates.

‘The country’s vision is one of a healthy, educated and prosperous nation and the World Bank is committed to helping Tuvalu meet these goals,’ Drees-Gross added.

The bank noted that Tuvalu was its smallest member country with a population of just 11,000. To that end, it faced unique economic challenges. High vulnerability to external economic shocks, drought and natural disasters have contributed to greater hardship over recent years, especially in the remote outer islands.

Tuvalu was hit hard by the global financial crisis, the bank said, as remittances from overseas workers, mostly seafarers, more than halved from 2008 to 2013. Returns on financial assets held in the Tuvalu Trust Fund also fell sharply.