INTRODUCTION
The Kingdom of Cambodia has applied financing from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Government of Korea through EDCF to finance the Rural Roads Improvement Project III which intended to improve 56 rural roads with total length of about 724 km in ten (10) provinces (Kampong Cham, Kratie, Prey Veng, Svay Rieng, Tboung Khmum, Kampong Chnang, Kandal, Kampong Speu, Takeo and Kampot province). The scopes of the civil works are to improve the project rural roads with DBST (double bituminous surface treatment) and concrete pavement including road furniture. The project has been implemented from 2019-2025 under the total estimated cost of US$ 133.574 Million in which comprises of ADB and EDCF’s financing and contribution of the Royal Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia. The Ministry of Rural Development (MRD) is the only Executing Agency (EA) and the Implementing Agencies (IAs) are Project Management Unit (PMU) under MRD and Provincial Departments of Rural Development (PDRDs).
The rehabilitated roads will provide poor rural communities with a safer, disaster- and climate-resilient rural road network with all-year access to markets and other social services. The project will continue to support the sustainability of the rural road network through (i) a rural road maintenance regime in the MRD; (ii) a community-based road safety program;
(iii) support an HIV/AIDS and human trafficking awareness and prevention program (HHTPP). In accordant with the ADB Safeguard policy the project was categorized as “B” for environmental impact and as “C” for involuntary resettlement impacts and indigenous peoples. MRD through their Social and Environmental Office (SEO) and Provincial Departments of Rural Development (PDRDs) are responsible for Safeguard monitoring and implementation of project with technical support from DDIS Consultant.
Project Objective
The Project objective is to improve the access to social services and to develop rural economy by providing cost-effective rural road network with all-year reliable access. With the ADB and EDCF’s continuous support for the third phase of Rural Roads Improvement Project (RRIP), which aims at continuing the initiatives of two upstream projects. Therefore, the Royal Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia is expected to ensure achieving the development objectives, impact and outcome through extended scale of wider coverage, in a sustainable manner.
Outputs of the project
(i) Output 1: Rural Roads Improved. The project will rehabilitate 56 roads, about 724 km in total, to disaster-resilient paved condition and reduce the average roughness of project roads.
(ii) Output 2: Rural Road Asset Management Improved. Under this output, MRD will increase the annual operation and maintenance budget for project roads to a sufficient level which will keep the reasonable quality of the roads. PDRDs need to conduct routine maintenance and budgetary support needs to be adequately allocated for maintaining already paved rural roads. The project will also install overload control gates to curtail overloaded and oversized trucks for effective axle load control.
(iii) Output 3: Awareness of Road Safety and Potential Social Problems Strengthened. Under this output, (a) community residents will improve their knowledge and understanding of road safety measures; (b) community residents and contractors’ personnel will improve their HHTPP awareness; and (c) SEO will establish a sex-disaggregated baseline socioeconomic database and receive training on designing and conducting a socioeconomic survey.
All three outputs are gender sensitive and have relevant gender indicators. The labor gender action plan (LGAP) describes the gender-related activities. SEO will implement the LGAP for the overall project with support from DDIS consultants.