Pilot Community-Based Rural Infrastructure Project for Highland Areas

Pilot Community-Based Rural Infrastructure Project in Highland Areas

In the highlands, isolation and a lack of basic infrastructure limit development and contribute to poverty. As a result of difficult conditions in rural areas, migration to urban areas is increasing.

The project’s goal is to improve the living standards of poor rural people in remote highland communities by:

• empowering communities to have a role in improving infrastructure
• reducing isolation and improving mobility and access to markets and services
• institutionalizing community-led access road improvement within the national framework for road development
• improving the access of poor households to sustainable drinking water supplies.

The project will focus on upgrading the lowest category of roads, known as quaternary roads, which reach the most disadvantaged villages in the highlands. It will build on the experience of the Government of Yemen’s Social Fund for Development in upgrading quaternary roads in response to community demand, and in developing water-supply schemes emphasizing rainwater harvesting and gravity-fed schemes appropriate for highland areas. Improvements are based on low-cost labour-intensive techniques and are implemented by the community.

To maximize the project’s benefits, all village access roads improved under the project will be linked to other upgraded rural roads, and priority will be given to links with intermediate road networks in IFAD project areas in Dhamar, Al-Dhala and Raymah. The project will also link village access roads with improved intermediary roads in the poorest districts of 11 highland governorates.

An IFAD grant will support an analysis of the project experience that will assist in formulating a policy for rural road development that includes attention to poverty and gender equality.

In December 2008, in response to a request from the Government of the Republic of Yemen , the Executive Board approved changes to the financing agreement for the project. The government requested assistance in coping with the effects of the food price crisis, which has driven up the costs of imported food and fertilizers. The crisis has exacerbated the severe challenges facing the country, including poverty, food insecurity and degradation of the natural resource base.

IFAD’s additional investment of US$3.5 million, in the form of a loan and grant package, will provide infrastructure support related to agricultural production, marketing and resource protection and capacity-building in crisis management and project management.

Source: IFAD