Municipal Services Project

closed

The Municipal Services Project is aligned with the Country assistance Strategy (CAS) fourth development theme, since it will support environmental improvements at the municipal level. Specifically, the CAS mentions that the project will help improve services, which will be achieved through the proposed investments, and institutional strengthening components of the project. The project will have three components as follows. The Municipal Development component - under eligible expenditures, will finance activities on the water, wastewater, and solid waste sectors. Investments have been proposed by the Iller Bank (IB), and, the Policy and Human Resources Development Fund (PHRD) grant is financing feasibility studies in a number of municipalities to confirm the viability of the investments. The project implementation arrangements outline Sub-borrower, and Sub-project eligibility criteria, while IB will appraise each Sub-project, and will be responsible for supervision. The second component - Municipal Technical Assistance - will support: a) feasibility studies; b) urban planning; c) preparation of design and bidding documents; d) the Operational Improvement Plan related to institutional, technical, financial, and environmental matters. All Sub-projects will have an Operational Improvement Plan; and, e) construction supervision. These activities will be financed through Sub-loan proceeds from IB. The third component - Iller Bank Institutional Strengthening - will include technical assistance to IB for the implementation of the project, and the Action Plan in a satisfactory manner. These expenditures will be financed from IB's own resources, and the loan proceeds. The component will increase the financial and banking capacity, and increase as well the technical capacity. Auditing and incremental operating costs will be financed under this component.