Social Investment Fund Project (SIF)

The Project's primary aim is to support the vulnerable groups among the Georgian population, particularly those in remote areas, and provide them access to basic social and economic services on a sustainable basis, through rehabilitation of existing social and economic infrastructures. The Georgian Social Investment Fund (GSIF) has been established to help improve access to basic services by mobilizing public and private resources and by channeling these resources through small investments (microprojects) that are likely to generate sustainable benefits.The Project's secondary development objectives are to: (i) strengthen the capacity of private, small-scale contractors so they can benefit directly or indirectly from contracts financed by the GSIF; (ii) build the capacity of communities so they can prepare and implement small projects; (iii) generate employment by requiring labor-intensive civil works in GSIF-financed microprojects; and (iv) build greater capacity for policy makers to monitor and analyze trends in the level and structure of poverty in Georgia.During the Project's midterm review, the Project Development Objective put more emphasis on sustainable access to basic services, i. e., greater attention to making investments viable/sustainable, and less on labor content and on strengthening the capacity of local contractors to carry out rehabilitation of small rural infrastructures.Supplemental Credit for an Earthquake Emergency. On April 25, 2002, an earthquake measuring 4.8 on the Richter scale hit Georgia, with its epicenter in Tbilisi. Although there were only six casualties, the earthquake caused damage to thousands of buildings in Tbilisi, mainly in the older, historic parts of the city. The overall level of damage to both private and public infrastructures is substantial. Approximately 17,000 buildings suffered some measurable damage during the earthquake (classified on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being minor cosmetic damage and 5 indicating total collapse). As a result of the significant damages to buildings, including houses and schools, students have been relocated to other less damaged buildings. As classes are held in two or more shifts, many schools are now operating above their normal capacity.The objective of the Supplemental Credit is consistent with the GSIF1 Project Development Objective (PDO), which is to improve the access of vulnerable groups to social and economic services on a sustainable basis. The proposed Supplemental Credit will be used exclusively to assist in financing the rehabilitation of educational infrastructures in Tbilisi damaged by the April 25, 2002 earthquake.Unlike other earthquake disasters, the April 25th earthquake had few human casualties and, therefore, did not attract much international attention. Although the country received international assistance, the aid and contributions from donor governments, bilateral, and NGOs were limited and insufficient. As a result, during the visit of Managing Director Shengman Zhang to Georgia in early July 2002, then-President Shevardnadze requested the Bank's assistance for reconstruction. Mr. Zhang agreed that IDA would provide support, and subsequently, in August 2002, an agreement was reached to provide US$5 million for reconstruction and rehabilitation of the most damaged public infrastructures. As there is an urgency to speed up the reconstruction and rehabilitation of schools and kindergartens to ensure continued access of children to educational services, it was determined that the GSIF team can best expedite themplementation of this request because of its experience in implementing the GSIF1 Project.The Supplemental Credit will continue to finance the original project components, namely: Component 1: Microprojects in Rehabilitation of Small-Scale Infrastructures focusing on the rehabilitation of educational facilities in Tbilisi damaged by the April 25, 2002 earthquake and Component 2: Institutional Support for the GSIF to carry out the implementation. The re-enforcement of the damagedinfrastructures will upgrade these educational facilities to enable them to withstand an earthquake of at least similar magnitude an to meet existing norms and standards (Category 8 in the MSK scale). In order to protect the investment, the rehabilitation work will also include mitigating the endemic drainage problems of most of the targeted facilities.