ADB to lend $100 M for dev’t of urban poor communities

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is expected to provide a $100-million loan early this year for the enhancement of services to the poor, an ADB official said over the weekend.

ADB senior urban development specialist and task manager Matthew Westfall said the loan is divided equally into two parts. One half ($50 million) will finance the development of urban poor communities while the other half will be used to finance a project called Metro Manila Urban Services for the Poor.

Westfall said the proposed projects are designed as core poverty interventions to upgrade slums, expand access to basic services and improve quality of life for the urban poor in the Philippines.

As a pilot scheme that will be incorporated in the loan, the ADB will provide a $1-million grant to improve life for a poor community at the Payatas Estate in Quezon City, the site of a giant garbage slide which claimed the lives of scores of waste pickers early last year.

The Payatas project is the third to be approved under the ADB’s Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction.

The fund, which has resources totaling $90 million, is financed by the Japanese government. It was established last May to provide grants for poverty reduction activities that add substantive value to projects financed by ADB.

According to Westfall, the Payatas project will provide bridge financing for land purchase under the Community Mortgage Program for 525 urban poor families, including 100 families who were among the victims in the garbage-slide tragedy.

Westfall said the project will also finance basic services such as water supply, sanitation and roads.

In addition, the project will include revolving funds for housing construction, livelihood and micro-finance, a community-based health insurance program, and education, training and exchanges to strengthen community structures.

The model community-based project, anchored on participatory, self-help schemes, is intended to have a high impact and ripple effect on neighboring communities in terms of land tenure and improving living conditions of the urban poor.

"The only meaningful way to tackle urban upgrading and effectively address urban poverty is to provide an integrated solution, with land tenure at its core," Westfall said.

He said that with this project, they are looking to anchor the development of the community by providing decent housing, basic infrastructure and land tenures, thereby creating a platform from which to deliver a comprehensive package of support for health, education and livelihood alternatives.