By Loretta B Manele
Unlocking urban potential is a good and excellent driver for economic growth.
Lodewijk Smets, World Bank’s economist for Solomon Islands made the statement when speaking at the recent launch of Community Access and Urban Services Enhancement 2 (CAUSE 2) project.
He said World Bank has initiated this engagement about 14 years ago with financing of the Rapid Employment Project, continuing with CAUSE 1 in 2018 and now the CAUSE 2 project.
Smets expressed that their partnership under CAUSE 1 and CAUSE 2 has been essential in allowing them to scale up urban efforts in collaboration with the Australian government.
“So, the World Bank is very proud to support CAUSE as a model for positive urban development throughout the whole Solomon Islands, creating job opportunities, improving the resilience of communities and enhancing essential services”
Smets also took the opportunity to highlight a few benefits of the CAUSE project during its first phase.
He said the CAUSE 1 project sustained increase in employment and income potential, which is key for development and livelihoods.
Smets added that from this project, their survey shows a 20-percentage point increase in self-employment among female participants.
“Also, formal employment had increased, among 15 points among male and 6 points among male and female participants”.
Smets pointed out that CAUSE 1 also improved access and safety for urban residents.
He said their surveys indicate that there was a 90 percent drop in injuries reported due to the construction of Jacob’s ladders and footpaths.
Additionally, there was also a 95-percentage point decrease in beneficiaries reporting that their roads were impassable.
“So, these are just a few examples that demonstrate the effectiveness of a project like CAUSE in producing economic benefits for urban populations across this beautiful country”.
Smets moved on to talk about why we need a second phase of the CAUSE project.
He said the population of Honiara city and peri-urban areas of Guadalcanal have nearly doubled in the past 10 years, making Honiara one of the fastest growing capital cities in the whole world.
Smets stated that this rapid urbanization has put an unprecedented pressure on infrastructure and services.
“This is made worse by the increasing frequency and intensity of climate and weather events as experienced in the past weeks that could lead to local flash floods”.
Henceforth, Smets said CAUSE 2 will address the needs for climate resilient infrastructure and urban services by laying the foundations for sustainable urban management and service delivery.
“It will do so through improving land administration, own source revenue and as a country economist I fully support that and also asset management”.
Smets said relying on community labour and national contractors, the project will continue to create local jobs and help communities prepare for climate challenges.
In this regard, he voiced that he is encouraged and inspired by the government’s strong commitment to investing in human capital and the fiscal environment, both urgently needed to unlock the economic potential of urban centers in Solomon Islands.
“I’m not saying this only as the acting resident representative, but also as the country economist for this country. Unlocking urban potential is a good and excellent driver for economic growth”.
In terms of financing, he said the World Bank stands by Solomon Islands to support the country with experience and technical assistance to ensure a successful implementation of Phase 2 of the CAUSE project.
“I wish you all a successful launch of field activities and look forward to witnessing the first infrastructure improvements already this year”.
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