Investment Components
Component 1: Infrastructure and Livelihoods Development
in a Decentralized Context
This first component, representing a Programme investment
of approximately USD 22.65 million (without contingencies) during the
four-year second phase, comprises four sub-components: (i) Infrastructure
Investment, (ii) Equal and Sustainable Access to Development Benefits,
(iii) District Institution Building and (iv) Province Institution Building.
Sub-Component 1-a: Infrastructure Investment
(USD 17.9 million)
The first sub-component replaces the previous component,
Rural Infrastructure, but combines the financing for water and roads within
a flexible financing facility. The financing facility will be divided
into two funds: the District Infrastructure Investment Fund (DIIF) and
the Provincial Water and Roads Balancing Fund. In addition, financing
is also provided for road maintenance, technical assistance and monitoring
environmental impact of the water and roads programme.
DIIF will be the main source for Programme
investment in rural infrastructure for the districts. Financing will be
made available to each district through an allocation based on a simple
and transparent set of criteria including: population, need (level of
access to water, roads, and other infrastructure facilities) and district
management capacity. The scoring of the last criterion will depend on
the district’s capacity and performance in planning, implementing
and ensuring the ongoing operation and maintenance of the infrastructure
financed the previous year from DIIF resources.
Provincial Water and Roads Balancing Fund.
As the amount of funding available for investment in economic infrastructure
– in particularly water and to an extent feeder roads – is
most likely to be more than the districts could manage effectively with
their current and foreseeable implementation capacity, a provincial-level
Balancing Fund would be established to provide flexibility and to allow
the Programme in consultation with provincial experts to either facilitate
implementation directly or to allocate money to those districts that have
demonstrated both the need and capacity to use them productively.
Sub-Component 1-b: Equal and Sustainable
Access to Development Benefits (USD 2.7 million).
The district is the focal point for coordinating actions
to deal with cross-cutting themes, including: (i) Social and Economic
Integration of the Poor, (ii) Gender Mainstreaming and Women’s Empowerment,
(iii) Unity and Reconciliation, (iv) Land Tenure/Management, and (v) Environment.
In support of social and economic integration
of the poor, the Programme will institute a process of poverty
mapping in each district that will form part of a strategic framework
for the Programme to:
(i) establish a typology of vulnerability factors and poverty inducing
processes;
(ii) identify different segments of poor/vulnerable within rural communities
and how the Programme activities can best target them;
(iii) identify how these segments of the communities can most effectively
be reached within the institutional/cultural framework of the communities;
and
(iv) determine the impact of gender, HIV/AIDS, land security and other
factors that influence poverty.
In contrast to the largely stand-alone support provided
for in the original Programme, a balanced and proactive programme to promote
gender mainstreaming and women’s empowerment would be introduced
into the Programme in the second phase.
To promote unity and reconciliation
and a culture of tolerance and peaceful coexistence, and to ensure that
programme activities can contribute to these national goals, the programme
will finance district delegates of the National Commission for Unity and
Reconciliation (NCUR), in accordance with its national strategy.
The Programme’s aim for its Land Sector
Strategy is to strengthen the capacity of districts to manage
land and other natural resources effectively and sustainably. It will
provide support to land policy implementation through: (i) strengthened
land-use planning capacities at the district and provincial levels; (ii)
land tenure security for poor rural households in support of implementation
of National Land Policy and National Land Act; (iii) land tenure safeguards
in UCRIDP; and (iv) developed and strengthened local land dispute resolution
through support to the NCUR.
For environment, the Programme will
require that environmental assessments form part of the criteria for Programme
infrastructure and where risk of environmental degradation is indicated,
measures to address the concerns would be recommended. These mitigating
measures would be built into the contracts of the service providers/engineering
firms. Furthermore, an annual environmental evaluation would be instituted.
Sub- Component 1-c: Local Institution
Building and Community Empowerment (USD 1.9 million).
An important part of programme support is to build up
the management capacity of the districts, to improve their ability to
develop functioning partnerships with the communities, and to create the
means to allow the districts to take on the responsibilities delegated
to them under the government’s decentralisation policy. Support
will be provided under the component in six broad areas: (i) local development
planning, (ii) facilitation and community capacity building, (iii) investment
delivery, (iv) accountable and transparent management of resources, (v)
equal and secure access to development benefits, and (vi) support to the
rural economy. The majority of this support will be provided in the form
of a flexible funding facility that each district would draw on based
on an annual assessment of its capacity.Provincial Institution Building
The provinces are mandated to assist the districts in fulfilling their
responsibilities, particularly with regard to programme implementation,
local development planning, investment delivery, accountable and transparent
management of resources, equal and secure access to development benefits,
and promotion of economic and social development. To facilitate this support
this sub-component will finance a number of experts for the PCU to be
based in the provincial offices of the participating departments, including:
a land planning/GIS team, a water engineer and a civil engineer, a water
NGO and short-term assistance. |
