The Inter-American Development Bank today approved a $25 million grant for a program to improve road networks in Haiti, where a 90-km (55-mile) trip on a principal route can take more than six hours.
The operation is expected to be the first of four annual grants totaling US$100 million the IDB plans to approve over the next four years to support Haiti’s efforts to foster regional development by linking areas that are virtually isolated from the rest of the country.
The program will help improve and maintain 146 kilometers of primary roads and 250 kilometers of rural roads in the Sud, Grande Anse and Nippes departments of Haiti’s southern peninsula. It will also finance the construction of up to 18 bridges on the primary road from Gros Morne to Port-de-Paix in northeastern Haiti.
Resources will be earmarked to strengthen the southern departmental offices of Haiti’s Ministry of Public Works, Transportation and Communications (MTPTC), including training for staff and the purchase of office equipment, tools, vehicles and road maintenance equipment.
The program will also help the departmental offices improve their capacity to manage road maintenance work, which will be carried out either by their own crews or by local companies and microenterprises, helping generate jobs and income for residents in the areas where the investments will be made.