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Côte d'Ivoire

World Bank donates 205 vehicles to support identification, civil registry modernization in Côte d'Ivoire

- For years, citizenship has been a contentious issue in Cote d'Ivoire, where civil conflict erupted in 2002

- A peace accord brokered in 2007 ordered the establishment of a modern civil registry system, and presidential elections have been postponed until voter registration can be secured

- The World Bank donated 205 vehicles to provincial administrators who play a key role in the identification process currently underway

ABIDJAN, November 24, 2008 - Sentiments of joy and relief could be seen in the eyes of over a hundred of provincial administrators who were standing late October by 4x4 vehicles they were about to receive in the parking lot of the presidential palace, in downtown Abidjan, as part of the World Bank's contribution to post-crisis assistance in Côte d'Ivoire.

The 205 cars, worth nearly US $6 million, were offered to the government, through a Post-Conflict Assistance Project to support the establishment of a modern civil registry system. A peace deal brokered in 2007 mandated the modernization project, along with the issuance of birth certificates to people who never had them or whose records had been destroyed during the conflict that started in 2002. A presidential election that was initially scheduled to take place at the end of November has been postponed yet again because of delays encountered during the voter registration process.

The administrators, or sub prefects, will use the cars to tour towns and villages in order to inform their constituents about the modernization of the civil registry and encourage them to get identity cards and have their names on voter rolls.

"We are so happy to receive these cars. They will increase our access to very remote areas where road infrastructure is sometimes in dire conditions", said Antoine Gbey, the sub prefect of Worofla, a locality about 400 km in the center west of the country.

Unlike ordinary cars, 4x4 vehicles can navigate through areas that are difficult to get to, such as flooded roads or muddy pathways.

According to Gnangny Pascal Dioulo, sub prefect of Noé, a locality along the border with neighboring Ghana, the use of the vehicles will go beyond the mere identification process to include duties of sensitizing the population on development issues, social cohesion and explaining the peace agreement in effect since 2007. "Our role is not limited to supporting the modernization of the civil registry only. It includes many other things. And for all this, we are now well equipped. Without cars we were so limited in our ability to perform," Dioulo added.

The World Bank intends to contribute efficiently to the mobility of local authorities engaged in post-conflict reconstruction efforts, said Madani M. Tall, who oversees the Bank's operations in the country. "We have resumed full cooperation and have reactivated four suspended projects worth US $104 million. We have also put in place new operations totaling about US $662 million in a variety of sectors, such as HIV-AIDS, urban infrastructure, the environment, economic reforms and budget support. We hope to scale up our operations in the years to come, if the social and political context permits," he added.

When Gbey took service in Worofla in September 2007, one of his first assignments was to work on public hearings meant to provide birth certificates to people who had none. This required, he said, a lot of traveling to villages in order to sensitize the population and assist the judges in their work.

Gbey, who had no transportation means at that time, had to resort to Mamadou, a resident of Worofla, who would transport him on his motorbike from village to village. "Mamadou was so helpful," he said gratefully. Finally, Gbey said that he felt embarrassed because he was asking too much from Mamadou. He ended up buying his own motorbike. "The days of the motorbike are now behind us," he said with relief. When Gbey returned to Worofla aboard his brand new 4x4, people rushed to his residence to celebrate, he said.

During the 2002-2003 civil war, the civil registry was destroyed in some areas and had disappeared in others, especially in the rebel-held zone in the north.

The World Bank's project aims at restoring it, modernizing records and safeguarding them, which will help put to rest all disputes around citizenship, a notion that has been at the heart of Côte d'Ivoire's longstanding social and political crisis.

In addition to the vehicles, the Bank will support the government in rehabilitating or building nearly a hundred offices for the sub prefects for a total cost of US $9 million. The Bank's US $120 million Post-conflict Assistance grant was approved in July 2007.

It aims at financing the economic reinsertion of ex-combatants and the youth at risk, the rehabilitation of community infrastructure and the national identification process.