Washington, June 25: The World Bank has announced USD 39.2 million financial assistance for Afghanistan's road construction projects which will provide jobs and help citizens of the war-ravaged country. The financing will help supply jobs in road improvement, which will in turn increase rural access to necessities such as health care and food supplies, William Byrd, World Bank country manager in Kabul said.
"Considering the fact that almost 80 per cent of the rural population lives on subsistence-level incomes, the creation of employment opportunities will have an immediate impact on their livelihoods," Byrd said.
It will create a minimum of 6 million unskilled days of employment or around 300,000 temporary jobs of one month's duration and reconstruct some 2,000 km of rural roads and nearly 2,300 metres of bridges, a World Bank release said yesterday.
The project will be implemented over a 39-month period by the Ministry of Public Works and Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development.
The government of Afghanistan launched a pilot project to test the effectiveness of providing employment opportunities under its National Emergency Employment Program (NEEP) in late 2002. This project was funded by the World Bank through the emergency community empowerment and public works grant.
Bureau Report