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Haiti: World Bank Approves $1.25 Million Grant to Develop Community Programs in Cité Soleil and Bel Air [1]

The World Bank approved a $1.25 million grant to support community projects and strengthen community-based organizations in Cité Soleil and Bel Air, two of the poorest and most violence-stricken slums in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.

The new Post-Conflict Fund (PCF) grant, specifically seeks to help support stabilization in the slum areas by quickly providing improved access to basic services and income-generation opportunities for local residents; and strengthening local community organizations.

?This grant gives residents of Cité Soleil and Bel Air an opportunity to actively participate in the development of their own communities, the hardest hit areas in Port-au-Prince? said Caroline Anstey, World Bank Director for the Caribbean. ?We hope that the projects funded by this grant will contribute to improving human security and living conditions for thousands of struggling Haitians residing in these marginalized areas? she added.

Specifically, the Port-au-Prince Area Community Driven Development Pilot Project has three key components:

1. Technical Assistance, Capacity Building and Institutional Strengthening of Community Groups/Organizations, towards the planning, management and implementation of participatory community-driven development.

2. Community projects to improve severely deteriorated basic physical infrastructure, while quickly providing income-generation opportunities by rehabilitating streets and drainage canals; rehabilitating potable water supplies; helping to upgrade sanitation facilities; and developing small livelihood/income-generating activities.

3. Project Administration and Management which will finance the costs associated with project implementation, project coordination, supervision, monitoring and evaluation.

The pilot project, which can subsequently be scaled up if proved successful, targets two areas which encompass some 20 different subdivisions with a combined population of about 400,000 inhabitants, of which about 350,000 live in Cité-Soleil. It is expected that some 45,000 family members from poor families will benefit from income generation opportunities created by the project in addition to improving access to basic, socio-economic infrastructure and services. Furthermore, some 300 representatives of Community Based Organizations and local authorities will be trained in participatory and inclusive community development.

The pilot Community Driven Development Project is part of an accelerated World Bank effort to deliver services to the poorest slums of Port-au- Prince, areas hitherto largely inaccessible due to security concerns. On September 25th, a School Feeding Program financed by the World Bank's Post Conflict Fund began distributing meals to 5,600 school children in Cité Soleil. A similar school feeding program will soon begin in Bel Air.

The World Bank currently has $66 million in ongoing pipeline disbursements in Haiti for transport and territorial development, community driven development and disaster management. Additionally, the Bank pledged US$61 million in new financing for the period from July 2006 to September 2007 during a donors? conference held in Haiti on July 25, 2006. The World Bank will participate in the next International Donors' meeting on Haiti due to be held in Madrid, Spain on November 30, 2006.

Links

[1] http://www.harolddoan.com/index.php?...ticle&sid=2381

[2] http://www.harolddoan.com/index.php?...tid=&topic=129