INTRODUCTION
The Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia (GKC) has received a loan from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to finance the National Restoration of Rural Productive Capacity Project covering five provinces (Pailin, Kampong Chhnang, Tbuong Khmum, Prey Veng and Koh Kong). The Project is being financed under the Bank’s CoVID-19 Crisis Recovery Facility. The Project is designed to maintain and accelerate rural infrastructure spending, create short term employment, generate income, build the capacity of local labour and national contactors to ensure quality infrastructure delivery building on the national standards that have been established with support from other development partners and establish foundations for learning and knowledge sharing among key project stakeholders to scale up rural infrastructure and rural basic service delivery in the future. The Project will also support the GKC communication effort to (i) enhance awareness of targeted rural populations about social distancing; and (ii) build their preparedness and resilience during the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Project is being implemented over a three year period commencing in early 2021and is financed by a loan from AIIB amounting to US$60 million. The Ministry of Rural Development is the Executing Agency.
Objective
The overall project objective is “to sustain the rural economy and livelihoods of vulnerable rural populations and returning migrants affected by the CoVID-19 pandemic.
Results
The Project is expected to generate the following key results in the targeted areas in the five provinces as an emergency response to the CoVID-19 pandemic:
a. 50,000 short-term local employment benefits and income generation, including re-skilling and capacity development of the local labour targeting the vulnerable groups of the population and returning migrants who lost their jobs due to the COVOD-19 pandemic and who live in the project area.
b. 24 national contractors trained in quality rural infrastructure delivery and basic rural services provision including CoVID-19 precaution measures.
c. 100 facilities including economic (markets), health (health centres and social (schools) with improved road access.
d. 150,000 people with improved access to water sanitation and hygiene facilities, especially hand-washing as primary CoVID-19 mitigation.
Beneficiaries
The Project will benefit about 480,000 rural people in the five targeted provinces and maximize the benefits to vulnerable groups (women, children and unemployed returned migrants) whose socio-economic conditions are adversely affected by the CoVID-19 pandemic and are looking for short-term employment benefits. The works and services under the project are expected to be low value and based on national competitive bidding prioritizing job opportunities and benefits for local residents as well as returning migrants.