Municipal Infrastructure III (ARIS)

active

After serious unrest between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz and the political upheavals of 2005 and 2010, political stability has returned to Kyrgyzstan. The Kyrgyz government passed a decentralization law in 2002 that provided for far-reaching reforms at all administrative levels. To support the Kyrgyz decentralization process, the Municipal Infrastructure program, now in its third edition, provides funds for the expansion of social infrastructure for municipalities. Unlike in the previous phases, in Phase III the distribution of funds was decided through a local competition in which rural communities could apply for both micro- and more expensive sub-projects. The target group of the program is the 2.6 million inhabitants of the southwestern oblasts of Osh, Jalal-Abad and Batken, which are among the poorest in the country. The project sponsor is the Community Development and Investment Agency of the Kyrgyz Republic (ARIS). The programme is based heavily on the Village Investment Programme (VIP) developed by the World Bank in cooperation with ARIS and is known internationally as KfW-VIP III.