Strengthening Moldova's Disaster Risk Management and Resilience Project

active

The proposed Project is envisaged as part of a long-term strategic engagement on disaster risk management and climate resilience in Moldova, with this Project focusing on investments and institutional strengthening for emergency preparedness and response, laying the ground for future support for risk reduction investments at scale. The Project will address immediate needs required to enhance the operational readiness of emergency institutions and personnel and proposes operationalizing a public warning system (PWS) to allow for more timely and accurate warnings to save lives and reduce losses and damages, including those resulting from weather and climate events. The Project would also lay the foundations for potential subsequent investment projects by identifying and addressing existing risks in the built environment and fostering a culture of financial protection and risk-sensitive development. Below is a summary of the Project components and their estimated financing.Component 1: Investments and Institutional Strengthening for Emergency Preparedness and Response (US$29.5 million). This component will finance the installation and implementation of a national cell phone (cell broadcast) based PWS with its respective instrumentation and data servers and integration with existing meteorological, hydrological, and geological information systems. The component will also finance the acquisition of emergency response (fire engines) vehicles and equipment (containers with hazard-specific search and rescue and logistics) and essential emergency preparedness equipment and instrumentation (in-building and outdoor training equipment) for improved local-level emergency services. All activities would support the GIES to increase its emergency preparedness and response operations capacity in line with the requirements of the EU-CPM, reach compatibility with the EU member states, and help the GIES meet its EU Acquis and legislative requirements. The following subcomponents are envisaged:Sub-component 1.1 – Public Warning System (US$ 5 million). Sub-component 1.2 – Emergency Response Vehicles (US$ 23 million). Sub-component 1.3 – Community Emergency Preparedness (US$ 1.5 million). Component 2: Improving Hydrometeorological Services (US$6.5 million). This component will support the strengthening of the SHS’s meteorological and hydrological monitoring networks; production of forecasts and warnings capacity; and delivery of weather, hydrological, and climate services. This will include selective essential investments in support of the modernization of the country’s EWS—which is a key input to the GIES-planned PWS financed under Component 1—through improved weather and hydrological observations and monitoring, information and communication technology (ICT), including exploring possibilities of integrating such advanced technologies as AI into hydrometeorological services and weather forecasts, and utilizing cloud computing to improve forecasting systems and models; and forecasting infrastructure and institutional strengthening and capacity building. The improved weather and hydrological forecasting and climate services will provide a critical value add in decision-making for a variety of public and private users, particularly farmers, in the context of increasing drought frequency and severity. The component includes the following subcomponents: Sub-component 2.1– Modernization of Hydrometeorological Monitoring Systems and ICT Capabilities (US$4.3 million).Sub-component 2.2 – Improving SHS Service Delivery by Enhancing SHS Forecasting Capabilities, Institutional Strengthening, and Regional Collaboration (US$2.2 million). Component 3: Policy and Regulatory Support for Risk Reduction of Critical Infrastructure and Fiscal Resilience (US$2.5 million). This component will provide support for policy and regulatory measures and technical studies to better assess and manage natural hazards and climate-related risks. This would include the financing of the structural vulnerability assessments; geotechnical and other site investigations; and feasibility and design studies for rehabilitating, rebuilding, or reinforcing vulnerable critical infrastructure assets taking into consideration climate hazards whose failure may cause loss of lives and livelihoods and significant economic damages and losses to the Moldovan economy. Activities financed under this component are intended to be used by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Development (MoIRD) as pilots of good practices and later used as models for scale-up investments (by the World Bank, other development partners, and/or the GoM as part of Moldova’s EU accession process) with a focus on seismic risk reduction. Finally, the component will also support the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to undertake disaster risk finance (DRF) reforms in Moldova to reduce the post-disaster funding gap and improve the management of disaster-related contingent liabilities. The component will support two subcomponents as follows:Subcomponent 3.1 – Policy, Regulatory, and Feasibility Study Support to Reduce Seismic Risk (US$1.75 million). Subcomponent 3.2 – Financial Protection to Mitigate Disaster Impacts (US$0.75 million). Component 4: Contingent Emergency Response Component (CERC) (US$0). This component will enable the reallocation of loan proceeds from other components to provide immediate recovery and reconstruction support following an eligible crisis, as needed. Due to the vulnerability to natural disasters and the precarious regional security situation with potential repercussions on Moldova’s stability, the GoM has opted to include a CERC that can be activated in case of an eligible emergency event. Following such an event, the GoM may request the World Bank to reallocate uncommitted project funds to emergency response. The CERC design will be contingent on the impact and type of emergency and will not be a priori limited to any sectors, regions, or specific activities. CERC-financed activities will be demand and event-driven and will be detailed in a GoM Action Plan of Activities. An eligible emergency, conditions for triggering the CERC, the positive list and criteria for activating the CERC will be reflected in the CERC Operations Manual.Component 5: Project Management (US$1.5 million). This component will cover operational costs (except salaries of existing staff of the Office for External Assistance Programs Management [OEAPM]), consulting services, non-consulting services, goods, and training to finance the overall project management cost, including consultants hired by the Project Implementation Unit (PIU) to carry out project management and technical support functions to ensure efficient project implementation and close cooperation between the line ministries and implementing agencies as well as other project stakeholders. It will finance capacity-building activities for the PIU staff and other implementing agencies. These functions will cover technical, procurement, financial, environmental, social management, monitoring/evaluation, and communication and outreach activities.