Second Rural Economic Development Initiative (REDI II) Project

active

The object of the Second Rural Economic Development Initiative Project for Jamaica is to enhance access to markets and to climate resilient approaches for targeted beneficiaries. The project has four components. Component 1 is climate resilient agricultural and community tourism investments for rural enterprises (Total 28.0 million US Dollars, IBRD 26.0 million US Dollars and Beneficiary Contribution 2.0 million US Dollars). The objective of this component is to promote the development of agricultural/community tourism enterprises that are better integrated in productive partnerships or "alliances" and operate more competitively in selected value chains, with more reliable linkages with buyers and markets and increased capacity to manage climate risks. Component 2 is the institutional strengthening and capacity building for public entities (IBRD 8.0 million US Dollars) This component aims to strengthen the capacity of relevant public sector institutions – the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture, and Fisheries (MICAF), MOT, and JSIF – and associated entities (Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo), and others) to provide the public infrastructure and quality services needed to promote inclusive rural development (based on the agriculture and tourism nexus) and to ensure the sustainability of the rural enterprises and productive partnerships supported by the project. Component 3 is the project management, monitoring, and evaluation (Total : IBRD 6.0 million US Dollars). This component will finance incremental costs associated with the coordination, administration, supervision, and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of project implementation by JSIF and the technical Project Management Team (PMT) that JSIF will establish for REDI II. Costs to be financed include technical expertise (agriculture, tourism, business development, M&E, and so on), salaries of other contractual staff of JSI supporting the project, staff training, annual audit, vehicles, office equipment, and other operating costs. This component will also ensure that effective safeguard, fiduciary, and M&E arrangements are in place during implementation. Component 4 is the contingent emergency response (0 US Dollars). This component will allow loan proceeds to be reallocated from other components to support emergency recovery and reconstruction following an eligible crisis or emergency at the national or subnational level. Specifically, given the design of the proposed project, this Contingent Emergency Response Component (CERC) is expected to be operationalized through a reallocation from Component 1 to provide emergency recovery and reconstruction support. To ensure that there is capacity to implement this component, the POM includes a CERC annex applicable to eligible disasters detailing fiduciary, safeguard monitoring, reporting, and any other implementation arrangements necessary.