World Bank to fund Odisha to increase social protection, disaster resilience

World Bank has decided to fund the Odisha government to support its early forecasting systems for improved response to natural disasters and enhance social protection coverage for poor and vulnerable households through digital platforms, an official release said on Thursday.

A meeting was held between the Odisha government and a World Bank team here on Wednesday under the chairmanship of development commissioner Anu Garg on the Externally Aided Project (EAP)-Odisha State Capability and Resilient Growth Programme (OSCRGP).

The Centre has signed an agreement with the World Bank in July for the programme which costs around Rs 1,183 crore and the state government funding is Rs 367 crore, an official said.

The state cabinet had approved this project in December last year. OSCRGP has been declared effective from August 11, 2023 by the World Bank.

Garg focused on expediting the World Bank-funded project which is aimed at protecting the poor and vulnerable households from the impact of economic and climate shocks in Odisha, the release said.

It would be possible by managing disaster risks and facilitating better use of digital data for resilience, service delivery and planning, she pointed out.

This EAP will augment government efforts in areas such as increasing coverage and scale-up of an adaptive social protection system, disaster risk management planning and programmes through the Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA), Electronics & IT department and better data quality through the Directorate of Economics and Statistics, the release said.

The different components of the project include the development and implementation of social protection delivery platform, state data policy guidelines and documentation for future roll-out, besides strengthening resilience through the deployment of early warning dissemination technology systems and expanded citizen outreach, the official said.

An independent verification agent will be engaged to assess the results achieved by the agencies concerned.