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The World Bank has given Zambia 142 million U.S. dollars which will go towards livelihood support for women and boost access to secondary education for disadvantaged adolescent girls in extremely poor households, the bank said on Wednesday.

In a release, the bank said the funds are for additional support to the Girls Education and Women’s Empowerment which the bank has been supporting.

The Swedish International Development Association (SIDA) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) which are jointly funding the program have also provided 35 million dollars co-financing grant.

According to the release, the project has supported more than 28,000 girls from poor households by covering their secondary school costs and about 75,000 women with livelihood packages, including life and business skills, mentorship and support to form saving groups.

The project, according to the release, is also supporting regular and predictable cash transfers to some 245,000 extreme poor and vulnerable beneficiaries which have gone a long way in improving basic consumption, resilience and investments in productive activities.

The financial support, according to the release, is to protect the basic needs and human capital of the poor.

“With this support, we are hopeful that better human capital outcomes will be attained through educating adolescent girls, empowering women and supporting the poorest households with longer-term investments, as well as enhancing government’s capacity to manage such interventions,” Sahr Kpundeh, the World Bank Country Manager for Zambia said in the release.