The objectives of this proposed project are to provide employment and livelihood to disadvantaged rural inhabitants in lagging areas (particularly women and youth) and to maintain the road access of local communities to markets and essential services in the project area.

The project will include the following components to achieve its objectives:

1. Rural roads preventive maintenance activities.
   1. The first sub-component of this Component will finance the maintenance works for around 1,000 kilometers of rural roads by civil society associations, cooperatives and/or social microenterprises employing rural citizens in socio-economically lagging areas with the goal of improving the living conditions of the population in a highly participatory manner. Maintenance activities will include clearing of the road, the road shoulders, the road slopes, culverts, drainage ditches, and bridges from landslides, obstacles, and loose materials that cause damage to the road, and repairing minor damages (potholes, cracks, joints, etc.) to the road, the road shoulders, and retaining walls. The specific road sections to be maintained by the project will be identified
      and prioritized with the participation of local rural communities during the first year of implementation within the geographic scope of the proposed project which is select socio-economically lagging regions in Morocco, namely the Oriental, Beni Mellal – Khenifra, Draa – Tafilalet, Souss – Massa and/or Marrakesh – Safi regions that include most of the poorest provinces in the country (Tata, Jerada, Figuig, Driouch, Zagora, Chichaoua, El Haouz, Ouarzazate, Errachidia, Essaouira, etc.) with a poverty rate at least 50 percent above the national average.
   2. The second sub-component of this Component will provide as direct income support and other benefits such as healthcare checks, literacy (particularly for women and girls), work and health insurance, access to mobile banking if available (to avoid potential governance issues), etc. to the participants (around a thousand).

2. Capacity building activities. The first sub-component of Component 2 will finance capacity building activities to participating regional and local governments staff (around 20 professionals in total) in efficient decentralized road asset management and performance-based contracting and supervision. The second sub-component will finance capacity building activities (in the form of both theoretical and hand-on trainings) to select members (around a thousand in total) of participating community-based organizations (CBOs) in (i) the soft and technical skills and know-how required for carrying out the financed maintenance activities and on (ii) entrepreneurship to foster non-farm rural entrepreneurial activities (in particular by youth and women) in the targeted communities, both by members of the microenterprises themselves and by their family members and neighbors.

3. Component 3: Project Management and Administration, Monitoring and Evaluation, and Knowledge Dissemination
   1. The first sub-component of Component 3 will finance project management and administration incremental costs, including administrative costs, reporting costs (including annual audits), and general operational costs through the provision of goods, consulting and non-consulting services. The second sub-component of Component 3 will finance M&E activities for the project through the provision of consulting and nonconsulting services, including (i) a web-based Management Information System based on third-party monitoring by local communities, and (ii) an impact evaluation study entailing a baseline survey, a mid-term evaluation, and a final outcome-impact evaluation feeding into the implementation completion report by the implementing agency focusing on the project’s successes and shortfalls.
   2. The third sub-component of Component 3 will finance, through the provision of non-consulting services, knowledge dissemination activities in the form of public awareness workshops, local media campaigns, etc., to share lessons of this project and raise awareness about this initiative within central and regional levels of government as well as local communities and civil society to increase likelihood of replicability and scalability of this initiative.

World Bank:
Contact : Vincent Vesin
Title : Sr Transport. Spec.
Telephone No : 458-9872

Contact : Nabil Samir
Title : Transport Specialist
Telephone No : 5360+4226

Borrower:
Borrower : Ministry of Equipment, Transport, Logistics and Water, Directorate of Roads
Contact : Mohamed Berjhit
Title : Deputy Director of Roads
Telephone No : 212-538005600
Email : bejrhit@mtpnet.gov.ma

Implementing Agency:
Regional Directorate of Equipment, Transport, Logistics and Water
Contact : Mohamed Hafiane
Title : DPETLE
Telephone No : 212-528802085
Email : mhafiane@mtpnet.gov.ma 

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