Maldives: World Bank To Help The Government Of Maldives Strengthen Social Service Delivery

Washington, D.C., July 6, 2004—The World Bank today approved a $15.76 million credit to support the Government of Maldives to deliver education, health and nutrition, employment, and community services, particularly to remote island regions.

The Integrated Human Development Project will benefit secondary school students and poor and female students who have problems attending school away from their home islands. Women and children will have increased access to pre-natal care, well-baby services, and nutrition-promotion programs. Job seekers—especially young people and females—will gain from expanded employment prospects. Capacity building will assist local community groups with their delivery of social services.

“The project will support the government’s economic and social development strategy,” says Qaiser Khan, World Bank Lead Social Protection Specialist and co-task leader for the project. “It aims to improve social outcomes, reduce poverty and improve inter-regional equity, increase employment in remote areas, and promote ecologically sustainable development.”

The Maldives is a country made up of 1,190 islands in 20 atolls which are spread over 900 km in the Indian Ocean. Only 198 of the islands are inhabited, and 70 percent of those have a population of less than 1,000 people. This widely dispersed population makes delivering social services and public administration very costly for the government. To combat this, the government will develop two regional centers or hubs, one each in the far north and far south of the country. In addition to these regional hubs, the government will support the development of focus islands starting with one in each atoll. These would be become the center of services within the atolls. Eventually, they are expected to develop into atoll growth centers. The project will target the first four of these focus islands with four components and a monitoring and evaluation plan.

The Strengthening Education Service Delivery component will enhance cost-effective (not every remote island can support a school) access to secondary education in the target regions. The quality of that education will be improved by increasing the skills and capabilities of teachers and by expanding facilities. School evaluations will assess student learning achievements, teaching, and school management and the effectiveness of in-service training.

The Strengthening Health Service Delivery component will establish standard treatment procedures for non-communicable diseases and improve access to specialist services and essential medicines at low cost. To address the widespread problem of childhood malnutrition, the project will support the communication of strategic behavioral changes, improved nutrition surveillance, and greater use of local complementary foods.

Employment prospects of individuals will be expanded by the Strengthening Employment Services component. The project will support cost-effective job information and counseling services. Existing microfinance programs on the focus islands will be expanded.

The Strengthening Community Services component will build the technical and managerial capacity of community-based organizations to take the lead in providing community services on focus islands.

The implementation of the project will be enhanced through the support of training and technical assistance to the Project Management Unit and the Ministry of Finance and Treasury. The project will also provide an extensive monitoring and evaluation framework. Results will be studied for possible implementation in other rural areas.

“Eventually, when the focus islands develop into regional centers offering people an alternative to the Malé region,” says Harsha Aturupane, Senior Economist and co-task leader for the project, “the broader population will also benefit through the cost-effective delivery of high quality public services, reduced disparities between the capital and the rest of the country, and higher economic goals.”

The Integrated Human Development Project is consistent with Maldives’s Country Assistance Strategy objectives of reducing poverty and regional differences in access to social services. The US$15.76 million credit is from the International Development Association, the World Bank’s concessionary lending arm.

For more information on World Bank activities in Maldives, please visit:

http://www.worldbank.org/mv

For more information about the Integrated Human Development Project, please visit:

http://web.worldbank.org/external/projects/main?pagePK=104231&piPK=73230&theSitePK=40941&menuPK=228424&Projectid=P078523