Cambodia Road Connectivity Improvement

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The project targeted area include Kampong Cham, Kratie, and Tboung Khmum provinces with a total population of over 2 million people. More than 80 percent of the population in these three provinces live in rural areas, of which about 50 percent are women. Communities in the targeted provinces will benefit from improved road accessibility to economic and human development facilities such as markets, hospitals and schools, significantly reducing the risk of connectivity disruption from the heavy rainfall and flooding. The main expected impacts include: (i) supporting economic development through enhanced market access, particularly for agriculture producers; (ii) supporting human development through improved access to schools and health facilities; and (iii) improving climate resilience of the road infrastructure and enabling all-season access along the project roads. The proposed investment will contribute to economic growth and poverty reduction through enhanced connectivity to markets and jobs, improved all-season accessibility to education and health facilities and reduced transportation cost and time for population and business in the project area. The design of the proposed project builds on a network connectivity approach to improve climate-resilient road accessibility in rural areas and between rural areas and the main road corridor in the targeted provinces. The proposed scope of road improvement works includes two-level interventions. The first intervention is to improve the sections of the national and provincial roads (Component 1) along the targeted road network which connect the rural and provincial roads with the core road network and main economic centers in the country. These road sections are under the responsibility of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MPWT). The second intervention is to improve rural road accessibility in the targeted area (Component 2), which is under the responsibility of the Ministry of Rural Development (MRD), by focusing on priority rural roads to improve climate resilient access to markets, schools and health facilities. Institutionally (Component 3), the proposed project will equip MRD and MPWT with tools and capacities to better fulfill their mandates as road network managers.The proposed project is part of the World Bank Group Program described in the Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for Cambodia 2019–2023. The proposed project will support the CPF objectives: expand and improve sustainable infrastructure services (CPF Focus Area 1, Objective 3); foster human development (CPF Focus Area 2); and improve agricultural productivity (CPF Focus Area 3, Objective 8). The proposed project will contribute to achievement of the World Bank Group’s twin goals to reduce extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity by extending the benefits of climate resilient road accessibility and lower transportation costs to a broader segment of the population in rural areas, where most of the poor and near-poor are concentrated.