By Loretta B Manele
The Community Access and Urban Services Enhancement 2 (CAUSE) project is an initiative that promotes economic growth and boosts climate and disaster resilience.
According to the CAUSE 2 project booklet, the project aims to do the above by delivering key climate-resilient infrastructure projects through national contractors.
This project is made up of four components namely; resilient township development, safe and inclusive communities, enhanced urban productivity and land administration and urban management.
Under “resilient township development”, CAUSE 2 aims to have 120,000 Solomon Islanders benefit from improved climate resilient infrastructure and services, build or upgrade 25 climate resilient economic infrastructures and maintain 450 tertiary roads by low-cost community contracts.
Through “safe and inclusive communities”, the project target is to have 90% of local residents report improved environment and access to transport and services, 166 climate-resilient community infrastructure projects completed and 4,700 vulnerable people trained and receiving short-term employment.
As for the “enhanced urban productivity” component, CAUSE is looking at training more than 700 people in literacy and numeracy skills development, having more than 1,600 micro-firm owners trained on income generation and more than 2,300 people accessing employment, support and referral services.
Last but not least, there is the fourth component which is the “land administration and urban management” that aims to have 10,000 land registry records in Honiara digitalized, 100% of contract management system operational in MID and a 40% increase in annual land rent and property rates revenue for Ministry of Lands, Housing and Survey, Honiara City Council (HCC) and Guadalcanal provincial government.
CAUSE is a government initiative led by the Ministry of Infrastructure Development (MID), HCC, Ministry of Lands and Guadalcanal, Malaita and Western provincial governments.
This project was launched earlier this month and will progress until 2030 with a funding from World Bank at US $20.2 million and US $17.3 million from the Australian government through the Papua New Guinea and Pacific Umbrella Facility Multi-Donor Trust Fund (PPIUF).
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