[03/May/2012]

WASHINGTON, May 03 (Saba) - The World Bank (WB) has approved to fund a $65 million project to generate much-needed employment and provide urgently needed services in sparsely populated rural settlements and poor urban communities in Yemen.

In a statement, the WB said its board of directors agreed on Wednesday to finance the project that will cover all Yemeni governorates and aims to create 120,000 jobs and high-value public infrastructure assets for the poor.

The Yemen Labor Intensive Public Works Project, the fourth in a series of similar endeavors, is designed for both maximum impact and inclusion.

The statement pointed to the Yemen's high need for basic infrastructure services, saying "requests have already been received." A diverse selection of such projects will be implemented in areas such as health, education, water supply and harvesting, sewage disposal, road paving and vocational training.

The selection process for the sub-projects will be transparent, with identification of sub-projects by the beneficiary community followed by submission of projects to a steering committee and International Development Association (IDA) for review and approval.

The WB hailed the improvement of the public works projects' performance in Yemen over the last 15 years, saying the projects are small scale, community driven and use local labor and materials.

This small scale allows them to reach into Yemen's highly dispersed and remote communities. There is now a well-established and experienced Yemeni government Project Management Unit, which provides continuous monitoring and evaluation of realistic and achievable performance indicators.

The Bank stressed that the community infrastructure will form the largest component of the new project, with about US$59 million allocated to about 440 sub-projects. These will be identified at the community level in cooperation with non-governmental organizations, concerned sector ministries, the relevant governor's office and project officials. With an ongoing focus on remote areas with high poverty rates, almost 80% all of sub-projects will be implemented in rural areas.

AF

Saba