Dominican Republic, Project Management and Capacity Building TA for the Post-Disaster and Climate Change Resilience FL

The geographical location of the Dominican Republic in the Antilles region inevitably exposes it to recurrent natural disasters of meteorological origin. In fact, the accumulated damages caused by cyclonic activity, rains and tropical storms of the last 25 years have been very significant. In the last 20 years, the Dominican Republic has been hit by 24 atmospheric phenomena that have caused millionaire economic losses, hundreds of deaths, river overflows and floods. In the last few years, this situation has been aggravated by the unusual force that these phenomena have acquired, causing material and personal damage to increase significantly.

The Government of the Dominican Republic requested the assistance of the EIB to develop and finance a climate-change resilient initiative that would include resettlement of the most vulnerable populations affected into secure areas close to its livelihoods. The initiative is be focused on climate/earthquake resilient infrastructure, particularly housing and related infrastructure (including in some cases health and education basic infrastructure), water and sanitation, access roads, bridges and support to the development of sustainable livelihoods.

Objective

The overall objective of the project of which this contract will be a part is to restore livelihoods, reduce vulnerability and increase resilience to disaster risk in the provinces of Monte Cristi, Puerto Plata, Espaillat and Duarte.

Specific outputs

1. To improve access to services in rural areas by rehabilitating roads and bridges in the secondary and tertiary network of the provinces of Monte Cristi, Puerto Plata, Espaillat and Duarte.
2. To contribute to improve spatial development planning and incorporate climate change adaptation and resilience in municipal infrastructure in the Dominican Republic, particularly roads, bridges and housing of the provinces of Monte Cristi, Puerto Plata, Espaillat and Duarte.
3. To contribute to increasing access of vulnerable communities to climate resilient housing in the provinces of Monte Cristi, Puerto Plata, Espaillat and Duarte.
4. To improve resilience of social infrastructure to flooding events in the provinces of Monte Cristi, Puerto Plata, Espaillat and Duarte.

The Technical Assistence operation has two specific objectives:

1 ) Build Institutional Capacity of the executing agencies and other relevant institutions in spatial development planning and delivering climate change resilient municipal infrastructure by:

• Supporting selected municipalities to develop and approve spatial municipal development strategies and municipal infrastructure investment plans that integrate environmental considerations and climate change adaptation best practices.
• Building the capacity of the General Directorate of Multilateral Cooperation (DIGECOOM) Project Management Unit (PMU) and the Project Executing Units (PEU) of MOPC and INVI to manage infrastructure investment projects in accordance with national legislation and international best practice on environment and climate change adaptation.
• Improve risk prevention by increasing climate change risk awareness of planning authorities and local communities and increasing knowledge of risk based design considerations of MOPC.
• Strengthened road safety procedures and improve maintenance of roads and bridges by MOPC

2) Assist DIGECOOM and the executing agencies in the appraisal and implementation of EIB financed subprojects to support the reconstruction of the provinces of Monte Cristi, Puerto Plata, Espaillat and Duarte by:

• Preparing in consultation with DIGECOOM, executing agencies and end users, a pipeline of infrastructure investment projects and carrying out its appraisal in accordance with EIB finance contract conditions in order (this includes carrying out required technical, social and environmental due diligence). Eligible sectors are: roads and bridges in the secondary and tertiary network ; investments in flood control and flood prevention; basic service infrastructure; and piloting four resilient housing projects for vulnerable populations. The four pilot resilient housing projects should be developed in a comprehensive way and may include other investments into hydraulic and road works to ensure its viability. These investments are to be prioritized over other investments.
• Supporting the project PMU as well as the respective PEU of the executing bodies (Ministry of Public Works and Communication and National Housing Institute) with the implementation and monitoring of selected infrastructure investments in accordance with conditions set in EIB financing contract. Support the PMU and PEU among others with, quality assuring engineering designs, implementing social and environmental plans, managing procurement processes, managing the supervision of civil works, and monitoring and reporting on project activities and project results.

Type of services:

• Identification of potential project areas (particularly for housing projects) based on rapid disaster risk vulnerability and socio-economic assessments.
• In depth climate risk vulnerability assessment for the project areas.
• Spatial municipal plans for at least 4 municipalities in the four provinces that will be the four pilot locations for the housing component. The plans will integrate climate change considerations and agreed vulnerability criteria and are subject of Strategic Environmental Assessments.
• An indicative infrastructure investment plan agreed by DIGECOOM and relevant executing agencies of potential subprojects eligible for EIB financing, including: Advise on procurement processes in line with EIB project Finance Contract and the EIB’s Guide to Procurement (GtP).
• Subproject appraisal reports, project monitoring reports and any other project related reports required under EIB project Finance Contract.
• Technical, social and environment due diligence required under national legislation and EIB environmental and social standards as reflected into project Finance Contract conditions.
• Quality assurance of the project, which includes among others: drafting procurement related documents, reviewing engineering designs, carrying out engineering supervision of all infrastructure investments, monitoring the implementation of social and environmental plans.
• Built capacity in spatial development planning, road safety, risk based design and climate resilience infrastructure of relevant agencies.

VNG International provided for the Team Leader (untill June 2022) and is managing short term experts in the fields of:

1. Road Safety
2. Procurement
3. On the planning are the following short term experts:
   – Resident engineers
   – Social & Environmental Engineer
   – Estructural Engineer
   – Topographers
   – Quality technicians