06 the program to avoid distress. As part of its safeguard measures, the World Bank provided both technical and financial support for high quality analytical work to inform these policy reforms and give the program a solid evidence-base on which to anchor implementation. Through its other projects, the World Bank would maintain regular implementation support by providing policy advice and technical assistance to the institutions involved in the implementation of the reform program. According to the World Bank, the funding program supported the Government to expand and improve the targeting of social safety nets to the poor and vulnerable. These included providing cash-for-work to informal sector workers directly impacted by the pandemic in the main urban areas and the floodaffected districts; increasing the number of beneficiaries under the current senior citizen grant by rolling it out to 71 districts; establishing a national single registry for beneficiaries of safety net programs in the near future; the use of an e-Voucher scheme to enable better targeting of smallholder farmers, the majority being women, to access high quality inputs, seeds and fertilizers to boost agriculture productivity and incomes. 16 Government secures loan funding from IMF to fight the pandemic and drive recovery. On June 28, 2021, the International Monetary Fund approved a 36-month loan arrangement under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) for Uganda in an amount equivalent to US$1 billion to support post-COVID-19 recovery efforts and the Government’s plan to increase households’ incomes and inclusive growth by fostering private sector development. This was a budget support loan that carried zero-interest, with a grace period of 5½ years, and a final maturity of 10 years. This followed the Fund’s earlier emergency support loan to Uganda under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) in 2020 of which US$491.5 million was disbursed to meet urgent balanceof-payments needs (70 percent) with the remainder meeting fiscal needs arising from the COVID-19 outbreak through the Uganda Development Bank. To ensure that the funds were used for their intended purposes, government committed to report on the COVID-19 expenditures; publish on its websites large procurement contracts related to COVID-19 spending; and undertake an independent audit of COVID-19 expenditures. The IMF noted that the authorities had made significant progress in publishing information on audits and the use of COVID-19 funds, Research on the Influence of International Financial Institutions on Uganda’s COVID – 19 Recovery Agenda