2011 - Armenia - Improving Local Roads and Creating Jobs

Presented at 2011 TRB Low Volume Roads Conference. In late 2008, the Republic of Armenia requested World Bank assistance to help mitigate the local impact of the global financial crisis. This paper describes how the Lifeline Road Improvement Project (LRIP) in Armenia was prepared and implemented as a Rapid Response Stimulus Package to respond to the crisis. The project was prepared in just six weeks. This project helped rehabilitate over 150 km of low-volume rural roads and generated about 15,000 person-months of employment over an eight- month period from May to December 2009. The World Bank’s Operational Policy 8.0 ‘Rapid Response to Crises and Emergencies’ was applied to the design and implementation of this project. This operational policy is invoked when there are major adverse economic and social impacts resulting from natural disasters or man-made crises and triggers the use of a set of streamlined procedures for rapid project preparation and implementation. The lessons learned from the design and implementation of this stimulus package offer useful guidance for preparing rapid response infrastructure programs and projects under similar conditions and circumstances in other countries. The accompanying presentation is here.