World Bank Signs a Grant Agreement with the United States and Turkish Treasury on an Additional $9 Million for
Conditional Cash Transfers To Low Income Turkish Families
Ankara, February 7, 2005 – The World Bank signed today grant agreement documents with the United States and the Turkish
Treasury, whereby the U.S. will provide $9,000,000 to the World Bank to be used to support the Social Risk Mitigation
Project. The grant agreement was signed by the Country Director of the World Bank Andrew Vorkink, U.S. Ambassador Eric
Edelman, USAID Deputy Assistant Administrator Thomas Mefford and the Undersecretary of the Undersecretariat of Turkish
Treasury Ibrahim Çanakçý.
The purpose of the Grant is to provide support to the conditional grants component of the Social Risk Mitigation Project
implemented by the Social Solidarity Fund (SYDTF) and strengthen Turkey’s social assistance system to become better
targeted to the most vulnerable segments of the population. This program is designed to provide direct cash assistance
to the poorest families in Turkey, to the poorest 6% of children aged 0-18 and pregnant mothers as well as to create
incentives for these families to keep their children, particularly their girls, enrolled in school. The payments are
made according to a graduated scale, whereby the payments are higher for girls. The total number of beneficiaries will
rise to over 1.3 million in March this year - with monthly expenditures of about US$18 million or more.
During the grant agreement signing ceremony, Country Director of the World Bank Andrew Vorkink stated that the Bank is
happy to see strong show of support by the US Government in contributing to poverty reduction in Turkey. He also added:
“ There is already strong evidence coming in that the CCT is resulting in higher attendance rates and higher continuation
rates from primary to secondary education. Beneficiary children appear to take their schooling more seriously. Also as
the benefit is paid to the mothers - this has enhanced the role of women in the family as they now have cash, have
opened a bank account, and in many cases obtaining official identification documents and registration of their marriages
for the first time. This all confers rights to women and increases their self esteem.”
The total loan amount of the Social Risk Mitigation Project (SRMP) is US$ 500 million through which the World Bank is
providing assistance to the Turkish Government to support to the poorest and most vulnerable in society and to
strengthen Turkey’s long-term social safety-net. The key goal of the SRMP is to serve also as a trampoline to help the
poor escape poverty - a system which not only mitigates social risk, but also helps to prevent and manage it.
For more information about the World Bank's work in Turkey, please visit: http://www.worldbank.org.tr/