Connecting Madagascar for Inclusive Growth

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Madagascar has lots of growth potentials, such as agrobusiness, tourism, light manufacturing and mining. However, they are spatially fragmented and poorly connected to the country's transport systems. In particular in rural areas, only 11.4 percent of population has access to the road network. Many rural farmers and local businesses are not connected to domestic markets, let alone the global market. The proposed project aims at supporting the Government's long-term efforts toward enhancing transport climate-resilient connectivity in select priority areas, while supporting institutional reforms to strengthen the sustainability of the roads sector in Madagascar. Component 1. Improving Condition and Resilience of Primary Roads (US$ 320 million)Subcomponent 1.1. Rehabilitation of priority national roads (US$ 306.9). This subcomponent will finance works and consultancy services to support the rehabilitation and paving of national roads in rural areas, primarily 100 km earth road section of the RN31 between Mangoaka and Bealalana (US$ 70 million) and paving most of the RN10 ($ 236.9 million, across 400km of earth road). The design and works will include ancillary infrastructure needs along these main roads, such as ducts and conduits to simplify the future provision of utilities and fiber optic cables where needed and agreed with the relevant authorities through consultation prior to the completion of designs. The roads will be rehabilitated in accordance with the newly approved climate resilience road standards, and this sub-component will also finance road safety audits. These roads have been identified in both the World Bank’s analytical work on connectivity and the government’s road sector strategy as high-priority roads for rehabilitation. The RN31 links key agriculture areas including those being developed through the World Bank -funded Sustainable Landscape Management project (P154698), key for bringing agricultural products to markets year-round, including during the rainy season. The RN10 is the main road in the southern part of the country, which is the region most affected by what experts have labeled a climate-induced famine. The RN10 links the two main port cities of Toliara and Fort Dauphine, and the whole RN10 is currently unpaved. The RN10 was prioritized given its strategic nature for providing all year accessibility, which gets often disturbed due to climate events and poor maintenance, for relief efforts and economic opportunities to the famine-stricken region. Related civil works will also bring an opportunity to support the direct employment of local people, including women.Subcomponent 1.2. Land acquisition required for rehabilitation works (US$13.1 million). This subcomponent will finance cash compensation linked to land acquisition, economic displacement, or physical resettlement for affected households required to undertake the works under the project (namely subcomponent 1.1 and component 2) and to avoid potential delays from lack of funds availability from government sources. Some sections of the RN10 and RN31 might require widening, the extent of which will be determined upon completion of the detailed technical design, while other sections would require minor/localized changed of alignment. It is not envisaged that land used for agricultural purposes will be affected by the project.Component 2. Improving the Accessibility and Socio-Economic benefits of Feeder Roads (US$ 70 million)Subcomponent 2.1. Rehabilitation of feeder regional and communal roads in priority areas, and the piloting of community-based maintenance of feeder roads (US$ 25 million). This subcomponent will finance works and consultancy service to support the rehabilitation and maintenance of priority feeder roads connected to the national roads being rehabilitated above, and other important rural roads. These feeder roads are mostly unclassified dirt roads, which will be repaired or upgraded to gravel roads, making them more resilient to climate impacts. Feeder roads are often critical to ensure last-mile accessibility to local communities. The selection of priority feeder roads will be undertaken using a multicriteria prioritization framework being piloted under the PACT project that looks at multiple socioeconomic indicators (population, poverty, rural access, climate hazards, proximity to schools and health care facilities). This will be supported by a spatial analysis tool using GIS mapping and a spatial analysis of poverty as well as consultation with local communities. This subcomponent will also support works and consultancy services aimed at piloting microenterprises and other community-based maintenance programs to ensure timely repairs of local roads and better infrastructure delivery in the last mile of rural connectivity and creation of employment opportunities for the communities (targeting women and the youth). Different supervision and contractual modalities can be tested: for example, small contracts with community-based organizations, framework contracting to a local contractor with an extended maintenance period, or a new technical standard based on local materials and skills. The maintenance programs will integrate climate and natural hazard risks considerations, ensuring the availability of manpower, equipment, and materials in seasons more prone to flooding and other natural disasters, and in this way ensuring connectivity of vulnerable populations in all seasons. The pilots will incorporate measures to promote women’s participation in road rehabilitation and maintenance through de development and implementation of Gender Assessments and Action plans with clear activities that will contribute to address the barriers that women face in recruitment and retention, as well as the particular risks that they might face for participating in these activities including different forms of violence as sexual harassment in the workplace.Subcomponent 2.2. Piloting of Performance-Based contracts on select unpaved roads (US$ 25 million). A performance-based contract generally provides more efficient road rehabilitation and maintenance because it commits contractors to a longer period to ensure the serviceability and quality of the rehabilitated roads and provides payments related to performance and road condition rather than to quantities and inputs, allowing further contractual optimizations. The selection of priority feeder roads will follow a similar selection as described in subcomponent 2.2. This subcomponent will finance the preparation of new standard bidding documents for the rehabilitation and maintenance of unpaved roads, that include pre-defined climate resilience performance standards. A few pilot performance-based contracts will be awarded to cover the rehabilitation and maintenance of three to five road sections, to be selected based on their climate vulnerability and criticality to ensure climate resilience of the transport network. The subcomponent will also finance training of ministry and road agency staff on the new contracts and will finance equipment and consultancy services to supervise and measure the condition and performance of the road by the implementing agency as per the requirements of the contracts.Subcomponent 2.3. Pilot of complementary social interventions along primary and feeder roads (US$20 million). In order to maximize the socio-economic benefits of the roads’ investments (both primary and feeder roads), complementary interventions will be included to improve the usage and benefits of roads in these rural areas, especially by different social groups in a situation of vulnerability. An internet-linked information kiosk will be installed to contribute to rural development and address asymmetries of information as market pricing and climate forecasts. Women will disproportionally benefit from this intervention as there is normally a gender gap in access to information needed to profit from agriculture. Other activities