URBAN I

closed

The First Urban Development Project is designed to: (i) improve the financial and management capacity of the two municipalities of Antananarivo and Toamasina; and (ii) strengthen the ability to maintain the most critical municipal services at least at current levels. It will (iii) expand the income-earning opportunities of poor and middle-income families; (iv) demonstrate neighborhood upgrading as a technically effective means of improving living conditions while reducing the need for new housing investment; and (v) build up capacity to design and carry out similar projects on a sustained basis.The components include: (a) Improvement of municipal revenue generation and collection as well as financial management in the municipalities of Antananarivo and Toamsina; (b) Improvement of technical services in the same two municipalities; (c) Neighborhood upgrading in the Isotry district of Antananarivo and in four neighborhoods of Toamasina. Other project elements involve: (d) Technical and financial assistance to artisans in the building trades and to small contractors in construction; (e) Traffic management and transport studies; and (f) Technical assistance and project management; studies of land legislation and of means of improving the financial and managerial capability of SEIMAD.