54687 No. 126/ April 2010 Innovations for Sustainable Infrastructure ­ Experience from Azerbaijan Rural Investment Project (AZRIP) Over the past decade plus, Community participation, and participatory processes--is Driven Development (CDD) has proven to be critical for achieving sustainable an effective strategy for promoting the infrastructure investments. As such, AZRIP development of small-scale infrastructure. serves as a good example of how close Indeed, by involving community members in engagement with communities and attention decision-making processes and project to sustainability in project design and implementation, the CDD approach increases implementation can lead to positive community ownership of investments development outcomes and the achievement projects and enhances their sustainability. of the "triple bottom line". However, despite its successes in the realm of small scale infrastructure, CDD's track record in promoting sustainability for more Background complex infrastructure projects (such as AZRIP was designed to put communities at roads and water supply systems) is mixed at the forefront of promoting rural best and the connection between community infrastructure development in order to ownership and sustainable infrastructure is improve their living standards and enhance not well established for larger scale projects. their access to infrastructure services. By building the capacity of communities and In order to ensure that the "triple bottom governments to engage in participatory line" of sustainable infrastructure is met in planning and project implementation, AZRIP the context of CDD operations, infrastructure significantly improved rural communities' investments need to be selected and access to infrastructure services. For implemented using an integrated approach instance, the travel time to school and that combines sound economics, solid markets was reduced by 47% and 26% engineering and attention to social dynamics through the rehabilitation of rural roads. and environmental sustainability . By Similarly, beneficiaries' livelihoods have also successfully incorporating a variety of improved significantly as a result of the innovations, the Azerbaijan Rural Investment project. For example, the rehabilitation of Project (AZRIP) demonstrates how adopting irrigation systems resulted in an increase of a comprehensive approach--including a production by more than $1 million in project focus on life-cycle costs, private sector areas while primary school enrollment 1 increased by 25% after school rehabilitation. communities identify sustainable Moreover, where AZRIP rehabilitated roads investments and make well-informed 78% of farm products are now brought to investment decisions. In similarity to most markets in nearby towns by farmers CDD projects, communities identified and themselves (as opposed to 18% in non- prioritized infrastructure needs during the beneficiary areas) and farmgate prices community mobilization phase. However, in increased by 20% for various crops in project order to help AZRIP's roughly 340 areas (while the corresponding prices in non- communities decide which investments to project areas decreased). prioritize, the project hired technical design firms that were responsible for identifying As the figures above demonstrate, AZRIP has alternative technical solutions (e.g. gravel vs. achieved success in a wide range of areas. paved roads) for each of the top three or four Perhaps as notable as these priorities and informing communities of accomplishments, however, is the strategies associated life cycle costs and distributional that the project has applied to achieve these impacts (e.g. investment costs, maintenance goals. Indeed, AZRIP's integrated approach costs, number of beneficiaries, etc) to infrastructure development has improved the way in which rural infrastructure projects Providing communities with this type of are selected and maintained in Azerbaijan information was critical to AZRIP's success and created a framework that the country because it helped beneficiaries identify can draw upon for its future infrastructure optimal technical solutions that balanced development. to help arrest this sharp rise in distributional impacts and future poverty levels. maintenance outlays. Whereas before the economic analysis was introduced communities usually elected to adopt a lower cost solution that would maximize the Balancing Choice and Sustainability number of beneficiaries (even though it The maintenance of rural infrastructure is would require higher maintenance costs), the often challenging as governments frequently introduction of the easy to understand do not have sufficient budgets to maintain economic analysis led communities to select these investments. As such, community projects that optimized the balance between ownership is critical for the sustainability of investment costs, future maintenance outlays rural infrastructure. By using a variety of and the number of beneficiaries. For innovative methods to ensure the example, in many cases communities sustainability of infrastructure investments, discarded their initial first choice when it AZRIP successfully strengthened the became clear through the economic analysis capacity of communities so that they could that other investments would have higher contribute to maintaining the infrastructure distributional impact or be more feasible that is critical for their livelihoods. from a sustainability perspective. In this respect, AZRIP's provision of information One innovative facet of AZRIP is that the helped communities more effectively select Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) projects that balanced short-term needs with conducted for the project included a simple longer term financial realities. economic analysis aimed at helping 2 much maintenance funds need to be saved on an annual basis to prepare for future maintenance expenses. Moreover, and as mentioned previously, the maintenance plans allow communities to devise a strategy for longer term maintenance requirements. As part of their strategy, some communities have even set up a maintenance contribution fee structure according to usage. For example, in some communities, households contribute to the portable water supply system depending on Rural Roads after Rehabilitation the number of family members, which roughly correspond to the level of In the process of enhancing communities' consumption. Similarly, owners of heavy awareness about life cycle costs and the cost vehicles (e.g. trucks, tractors) are expected to effectiveness of different projects, AZRIP's contribute more than owners of light vehicles approach also successfully minimized elite and those who do not own a vehicle. This capture. Indeed, poor and vulnerable groups arrangement ensures that community could more easily advocate for design members' maintenance contributions reflect solutions with higher distributional impacts the extent to which they contribute to because the cost effectiveness ratio of causing damage to the roads (which need to alternative investments was clearly presented be repaired through maintenance). As these to communities in a simple table. As such, examples demonstrate, the simple economic AZRIP's presentation of quantitative data analysis (and resulting maintenance plan) through the economic analysis helped the used by the project has allowed communities poor find a voice in the decision making to both identify potential financing gaps and process, ensuring that investments would devise their own financing mechanisms that benefit the entire community (as opposed to are fair and feasible. narrow interests). Planning for Sustainability After communities made the decision about which infrastructure projects to invest in, they worked with the regional technical design firms to develop the maintenance plan, conduct the environmental assessment, etc. Critically, since the maintenance plans are based on actual maintenance needs over the life of investments (that are calculated as part of the economic analysis), the design Schools After Rehabilitation firms are able to provide clear cut estimates of what the future maintenance costs will be. The maintenance plan is also particularly As such, they can inform communities how important because it outlines maintenance 3 responsibilities and the division of costs design firms and a community engineer who among communities, municipalities, and represents the community on technical service providers. Each maintenance plan aspects of project planning and has three columns that clearly outline who implementation (and works closely with the will contribute, how much they will design firms). In order to promote technical contribute and what their responsibilities are. quality, AZRIP introduced design standards The plan also outlines the activities that need that investments supported by the project are to be done to maintain the investments over required to adhere to. For example, AZRIP time. Once finalized, the operations and prepared design standards for the most maintenance plan is approved by the popular types of investments--including community, municipality and relevant roads, portable water/ electricity supply department (water department, health systems, irrigation, drainage, schools and department, etc). The approval of the clinics--and strengthened the capacity of the agreement by the parties confirms that the PMU engineers and design firms to oversee operations and maintenance plan is feasible these projects. and that the relevant agencies/communities will take responsibility for their maintenance Community engineers, community members obligations. and technical design firms share responsibility for supervising contractors during the construction of civil works. The Our family's main source of income is agriculture. day-to-day supervision provided by these We were suffering from the problems of acute stakeholders is particularly important for water shortage for irrigation. We heard about the activities of AZRIP from our community. All the ensuring the quality of civil works. Design people of the village participated in the firms also visit project sites regularly to mobilization process. The very interesting part of ensure contractors comply with technical that process was `priority problem' definition and identification. A vast majority of the villagers voted requirements, something that it is often for irrigation water supply project as the priority difficult for unskilled community members number one....[As a result of the project] our farm to do. Finally, community oversight income has increased by more than 30%. Thank you very much. minimizes fraudulent behavior by -Aliyev Mahir contractors, since community members are Garamanli village, Yevlakh rayon fully informed about project costs and involved in the planning and implementation of civil work. Complaint boxes installed in community halls provide communities with the opportunity to report incidences of Building Long Term Capacity corruption and provide suggestions for In order to build their long-term capacity, improvement. communities organize community project committees that are in charge of project Another notable feature of AZRIP is that the implementation. In addition to community project has taken explicit steps to strengthen members, someone from the municipal the capacity of regional design firms. Given council and a representative of the district that design firms have the capacity to council also sit on the committee to ensure decrease costs and increase the quality of government buy-in. infrastructure in the long run, the project held a variety of technical workshops to As project implementation moves forward, build their capacity. Moreover, AZRIP communities are supported by both the deliberately selected regional design firms 4 that are easily accessible to community infrastructure rehabilitation and ensure their members. Community members are sustainability. Indeed, almost all encouraged to contact design firms for infrastructure rehabilitated in the previous technical advice regarding maintenance or four years of project implementation is still additional capital investments. While design operational, as community members and firms are required to respond to such calls, local governments have successfully they are generally responsive since it creates provided sufficient funding for maintenance. potential business opportunities for them. Indeed, while the design firms generally answer communities' questions free of charge, they charge fees for further technical Forging Connections and Changing assignments such as the design of Mindsets maintenance works or additional In addition to its innovative approach to investments. By strengthening the capacity sustainability, AZRIP's multifaceted of regional design firms and generating knowledge sharing program is another of the connections between the private sector and project's major strengths. To being with, communities, AZRIP was able to improve the AZRIP organizes cross-visits between quality of regional technical expertise and communities. It is important to note that the raise the overall capacity for sustainable rural educational component for these visits is infrastructure management. prepared for communities by communities. The cross-visits, in which members of one community typically stay overnight in another village, provide beneficiaries with the opportunity to learn from one another regarding investment plans, capacity building experiences, innovations, experiences with different contractors and maintenance activities. These visits were critical to the project's success because they allowed community leaders who were just getting started with AZRIP to learn from those who were further along with the Community Cross-Visit project. Indeed, the project found that this type of peer to peer training was more The fact is that rural infrastructure effective than training done by project staff investments are very difficult to maintain or other outside actors. without local ownership. All of the innovations described above were designed The project also holds an annual investment to help beneficiaries make better decisions conference which brings together community and increase their level of involvement in the members, government, donors and NGOs. project. In short, by linking ownership to At the event, communities have the action, the AZRIP approach has empowered opportunity to make presentations about communities to become actively involved in their ongoing activities and lessons learned. ensuring that their rural infrastructure is Moreover, the conference also allows maintained. In combination, all of the communities to leverage the skills they have measures discussed in the sections above developed through AZRIP to build have helped expand the positive benefits of connections with other potential donors. For 5 example, AZRIP communities applied to the funds to community projects. For example, Japanese embassy for funding after meeting when one community invited the education embassy representatives at the national department to see its school project, conference. As these examples demonstrate, education officials were so impressed that in addition to building bonds between they decided to commit funds to the communities, the conference is important for community's work. In a testament to the promoting best practices and fostering project's effectiveness, AZRIP communities relations between government bodies, received over $700,000 in matching funds communities and donors. from the government between 2005 and 2008; these contributions were made on a Interestingly, prior to AZRIP there was very voluntary basis (and not as part of AZRIP). little previous experience with community- based approaches to development in As these examples in this section Azerbaijan. As such, many government demonstrate, AZRIP has used its knowledge officials were unfamiliar with the multitude sharing program as way to foster connections of ways that community based approaches between communities, share lessons learned could be used to produce positive results in and strengthen the bonds between citizens the realm of rural infrastructure. However, and the state. As importantly, the project has after observing the positive results achieved succeeded in changing mindsets about the by AZRIP in the realm of sustainable rural viability of CDD and laid the groundwork infrastructure, decision makers in the for new approaches to infrastructure ministries have gradually warmed up to the development and maintenance in Azerbaijan. approach. Moreover, the project forged connections between government officials and Lessons Learned community members by holding field visits The project's successes in promoting in communities. When government officials sustainable infrastructure provide a variety saw that communities were effectively of lessons learned that could be applied to implementing projects, they were often so benefit future CDD operations including: impressed that they committed additional Community Meeting 6 Invest in Core Activities: For AZRIP, roads, long term commitment to maintenance potable water, irrigation, electricity, schools activities. and clinics accounted for 80% of financing. While the project did not limit communities' choices in terms of project selection, it It is more than one year since AZRIP developed design standards and completed its activities in our village. We are very satisfied with the conditions now. I can specifications for the most popular types of make quite a bit of savings in the investments. By creating rigorous technical transportation cost. Due to the bad road design standards, the project was able to conditions before, I used to sell the farm products right in my village or to the middle deliver high quality infrastructure projects. men who come to our village. I knew that the prices offered were very low. However, I did Community Ownership is Key, but Building not have any choice. Currently, I am taking the over 75% of the crop and livestock Capacity is also Critical: While community products to the near town market. On an ownership is key, even the most committed average, I am getting 25% higher prices for communities will have difficulty maintaining the crops and 35% higher prices for the investments if they are not provided with the livestock products. Thanks to `AZRIP Road Rehabilitation Micro-project', my income has skills necessary to do so. AZRIP's approach risen substantially and I am able to support was successful because it provided my family better Now I am sure that the "good communities with the knowledge, road is an indicator for succesful business". connections and capabilities required to plan Quliyev Ilham Muhammed and implement long-term maintenance Oglu, Navai village, Hajiqabul rayon strategies. 1) Enable Communities to Choose Sustainable Solutions: The results of the project 3) Knowledge Sharing is Key: Providing demonstrate that a simple economic communities with the knowledge and analysis can be used to provide capacity required to maintain communities with the information that infrastructure investments is critical for they need to make informed decisions promoting local ownership and sustained about infrastructure investments. By involvement in the project. The project providing an accurate picture of the costs, implemented a comprehensive number of beneficiaries, and maintenance knowledge sharing strategy that not only requirements, the economic analysis improved the project's effectiveness, but allowed communities to choose projects also built connections between different that effectively optimized the balance communities, the government, and the between inclusion and sustainability. private sector. In the long run, these types of bonds are likely to lead to new 2) Establish Clear Maintenance Plans Based on approaches to infrastructure Credible Information: Often times, development and maintenance in complex infrastructure projects done Azerbaijan. using CDD are not sustainable because there is no ex ante understanding about 4) Develop Local Capacity: When possible, it potential maintenance requirements. By is also important to improve overall providing a clear sense of maintenance regional technical capacity by involving, costs to both communities and the and investing in, the private sector. government alike, the project was able to Given that regional design firms are fill potential funding gaps and generate a 7 closer to communities than international For Further Information firms, developing local capacity can lead Visit AzRIP homepage to learn more about the to lower costs, higher technical quality Project at www.azrip.org, or contact Satoshi and ultimately more sustainable Ishihara, Social Development Specialist investments. (sishihara@worldbank.org) This note was prepared by David Post and Satoshi Ishihara. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions are entirely those of the authors and should not be attributed in any manner to the World Bank, its affiliated organizations, or members of its Board of Executive Directors or the country they represent. For additional copies please contact: socialdevelopment@worldbank.org 8