The Republic of the Union of Myanmar
National Community Driven Development Project
Township Selection for
Chin State, Chan State, and Tanintharyi Region
Background
The Republic of the Union of Myanmar has received a grant in the amount of US$ 80 million from the World Bank toward the cost of its National Community Driven Development Project. The primary objective of the project is to enable poor rural communities to benefit from improved access to and use of basic infrastructure and services through a people-centered approach. The project is being implemented by the Department of Rural Development (DRD).
The project will finance three annual cycles of on average US$27,000 in about 640 village tracts for priority community level infrastructure. The infrastructure to be financed will be selected by the communities and will typically include small feeder roads, foot-paths and bridges, small dykes, drinking water systems, rehabilitation of class rooms and health centers, and small-scale rural electrification.
The project will operate in 15 townships – one in each of the country’s 14 regions and states as well as the union territory. Implementation will be launched in one township each in Chin State, Shan State and Tanintharyi Region in 2013.
In Shan State, the township will be located within one of the state’s self-administered zones. The project will be expanded to five more townships in 2014 and another seven townships in 2015 in the other regions/states of the country. The project will not operate in areas affected by conflict.
Criteria agreed between the Government and the World Bank for selecting the participating townships are: primarily poverty, with additional criteria being absence of external funding and commitment by regional government to the objectives of the project. This commitment will be exemplified by the support of the township authorities to the project and its people-centered development approach as well as their willingness and capability to implement the project.
Selection Process
The process for selecting the participating townships consists of three steps.
Step 1: DRD will prepare a table using available economic and social data for all townships in Chin State and Tanintharyi Region and all self-administered zones in Shan State. Data include gross domestic product per capita as well as select education and health indicators.
Step 2: DRD will organize a consultation meeting in each region/state which will be chaired by the Chief Minister. Participants will include local authorities, representatives of ethnic groups present in the state/region, NGOs and development partners with existing projects in the region/state, and local civil society groups. The purpose of the consultation meetings is to identify three townships per Region/State that best meet the
selection criteria, with a short attendant analysis. The list of proposed townships will be submitted to the Chief Minister for validation against the selection criteria.
Step 3: The Chief Minister will submit the list of the three townships with a proposed ranking and a short analysis to the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development and the Ministry of Border Affairs for confirmation, whereupon the Foreign Aid Management Working Committee will select the township. Finally, the selected township will be sent to the World Bank for a no-objection.
The selection process will be reviewed and refined as needed for the selection of the townships in the other regions and states.
