Philippines: Strengthening the Transition of Vulnerable Communities Affected by the Malolos-Clark Railway Project

Transport / Rail transport (non-urban)

The Malolos-Clark Railway Project (MCRP) will support the construction of two sections, totaling 53.1 kilometers (km), of the North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR) connecting the regional center of Clark in Central Luzon with Metro Manila and Calamba, Laguna. The project will provide affordable, reliable, and safe public transport. It will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and cut travel time from Metro Manila to Clark from 2-3 hours by bus to less than 1 hour by rail. The project is aligned with the following impact: local, national, and international connectivity improved. The project will have the following outcome: efficiency and capacity of transportation along the Manila-Clark corridor improved. The outputs of the project will be: (i) output 1 - new railway line commissioned, and (ii) output 2 - institutional capacity strengthened. The transaction technical assistance (TA), Strengthening the Transition of the Vulnerable Communities (STVC) Affected by the Malolos-Clark Railway Project will support achieving Project's output 2. The TA is financed on a grant basis by the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR) administered by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The Department of Transportation (DOTr) is the TA's executing agency.

The objective of the TA is to help 1,250 selected households overcome their vulnerabilities associated with urban poverty and involuntary resettlement due to the construction of MCRP and achieve sustainable livelihoods by applying the Graduation Approach (GA) methodology. The TA will apply the GA traditionally applied in rural areas and now tested for the first time in an urban resettlement context with the assistance of 50 mentors. The mentors will be trained on involuntary resettlement processes and GA adaptation modalities to work with the affected households in line with the Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) Livelihood Restoration and Improvement Program. The implementation areas cover the following eight cities/municipalities: Malolos, Calumpit, Apalit, Sto. Tomas, Angeles, San Fernando, Mabalacat, and Manila (Blumentritt). The TA consists of three outputs:

(i) Financial resilience and stability of participants improved. The

(ii) Urban resettlement baseline and monitoring system established.

(iii) Urban resettlement knowledge products produced.

The TA will assist the project affected persons (PAPs) to navigate the resettlement process and effectively access services and benefits under the project's resettlement action plan (RAP) and its integrated Livelihood Restoration and Improvement Program (LRIP). The TA will apply the GA to address vulnerability and improve resilience and financial stability of the communities resettled under the Malolos-Clark Railway Project. The TA will establish a system of mentoring by case workers (mentors) and develop an online monitoring system to enhance the resettlement intelligence and data analytics to enable targeting of tailored interventions. The online monitoring system will be used by DOTr to improve support to PAPs, and the data will be used to inform lessons learned and best practices. The online monitoring system will be turned over to the government at the completion of the TA to support their work in future resettlement projects.

The Graduation Approach is a multi-dimensional, time-bound, and carefully sequenced set of interventions that aim to graduate people out of vulnerability and into sustainable livelihoods by addressing the many drivers of poverty. It is a tailored and holistic approach to meet individual needs through targeted activities focused on livelihood and well-being improvement delivered by trained case workers (mentors). The approach employs tools for real time monitoring of PAPs' wellbeing and progress in stabilizing and re-establishing their living standards. The TA is innovative as it pilot tests the use of the Graduation Approach in the context of urban resettlement, and provides an opportunity to introduce innovation in to DOTr's approaches in their ongoing resettlement activities.

Consultations with project affected persons (PAPs) have been conducted during the preparation of the Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) and the preparation of the Livelihood Restoration and Improvement Program (LRIP) for the Malolos-Clark Railway Project.