Asian Development Bank

JFPR-9077: Community-Based Rural Road Maintenance

Tajikistan (TAJ)

Grant Summary

Name of Counterpart (loan) Project(s)

Grant Type

Task Officer / Department

Budget

Executing Agency

Implementing Agency(ies)

Scope

The Project will pilot-test the community-based rural roads maintenance system in Tajikistan by

1. establishing of community participation in local road maintenance
2. carrying out maintenance work
3. providing consulting services and training to enhance rural road maintenance and project monitoring and evaluation

Objectives

Grant Development Objective (GDO)

The overall objective is to alleviate rural poverty and raise living standards for rural communities through increased access to basic social, economic, ad income-generating activities.

Project Purpose

The purpose of the project is to establish, and prove the efficacy of, a sustainable and cost-effective community-based road maintenance system in the project area.

Expected Outputs

The expected outputs are

1. employment and income generated for the rural poor through contracts for minor repair and maintenance of rural roads
2. 350 km of rural roads improved, providing access to villages
3. sustainable access secured to education, health, markets, and regional economic centers
4. institutional capacity built in government and nongovernment organizations locally, and in small and very small contractors and communities, for managing and executing, on a sustainable basis, the maintenance and minor repair of rural roads

Main Grant Components and Activities

Component A: Establish a rural road maintenance planning system. This component will include the following activities. All activities will be carried out with a participatory approach to include workshops and on-the-job training.

• carry out a rural road inventory and survey of conditions
• select the most appropriate labor-intensive technology for maintenance
• estimate the costs of managing the rural road network
• prepare and submit an annual maintenance plan
• disseminate the plan to local communities and other potential donors for information and possible contributions
• prioritize works based on extensive stakeholder discussions and adjust costs to meet the budget available
• schedule and package the activities ready for implementation by local communities using community-based approach as far as possible
• tender the works among local small-scale contractors using simple engineering bid documents,
• formulate a medium-term maintenance strategic plan for 2006–2010 based on the first year inventory surveys and annual plan.

Component B: Capacity building in community-based maintenance work Activities: This component will enhance the capacity of key stakeholders (CBOs and local governments, communities, and contractors) to physically perform rural road maintenance work planned and approved in component A. It will

1. field test, adapt and revise the road maintenance manual developed under previous project
2. carry out training for small-scale contractors on financial planning, tendering and contract administration, labor management, workplace safety, environmental awareness, and health
3. train contract supervisors on contract supervision and management

Component C: Community-based road maintenance work. The component will implement community based road maintenance works, which will provide the rural poor with income-earning opportunities.

Component D: Project management, monitoring, and evaluation. The component will support the following activities:

1. overall project coordination, supervision, management, and reporting (to be assisted by the project consultant)
2. preparation of work plans and implementation guidelines and procedures for the use of grant financing
3. an independent poverty impact assessment and annual independent audit

Any other relevant Information

The Project will be implemented in 3 years.

• The first year will be mainly preparation and training, with some maintenance works.
• The second year will focus on maintenance works, with the consultants playing an active role in supervision and training.
• The third year will also focus on maintenance works, but with the communities and the regional road departments managing while the consultants just advise.