ABIDJAN, 29 September 2010 (IRIN) - The World Bank says it will give a record US$540 million over three years to finance post-conflict recovery and development projects in Côte d'Ivoire.

Aid agencies hope the money will enable several on-hold projects to resume after an almost five-year election impasse that has set back the country's development prospects.

The UN Children's fund (UNICEF) says many of its projects have been on hold until World Bank funding is confirmed, including a project aimed at special needs children, according to communications director Louis Vigneault-Dubois.

"What happens [now] depends on if we and the Ministry of Education are able to get adequate funds," he told IRIN.

Of the total allocation, the World Bank announced it will channel $20 million to provide health care for people living with HIV; $120 million for post-conflict rebuilding; and $13 million to improve government transparency. The bank is carefully targeting money to specific projects and aid partners, due to "mistakes" made in the past, its Côte d'Ivoire director, Madani Tall, told reporters in Abidjan.

Altogether, donors committed $750 million to the country between April 2008 and July 2010.

Poverty in Côte d'Ivoire has risen steadily over recent years: 39 percent of people lived on less than US$2 a day in 2002, versus 49 percent in 2008, according to the World Bank.

Tall said the World Bank needed to continue to support what it called the "backbone" of West Africa. Elections are due to be held on 31 October.