National Community Development Project (NCDP)

The NCDP is funded by a US$15 million loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) with counterpart funding from the Government of Jamaica (GoJ) to the tune of US$15.1 million. The total cost of the project is therefore US$30.1 million. Loan Agreement No. 7148-JM was signed by the IBRD and the GoJ October 31, 2002 and became effective January 29, 2003 with a Closing Date of December 31, 2007. The Closing Date has subsequently been extended to June 30, 2008.

The Project was designed within the context of Jamaica suffering from the effects of several adverse external events (impact of post-September 11 decline in tourism earnings, low demand for Jamaica’s exports) and internal ones (floods, high unemployment, poor access to basic services, crime and violence) with the two-fold objective of (i) helping communities in the most affected areas by providing basic services and temporary employment opportunities, and (ii) assisting the GoJ in its efforts to promote greater social and community development, especially among the poor.

The Project aims at providing social and community development infrastructure in order to improve the standard of living among the poor and to create an environment  for sustainable national development and consists of the following  components:

• Social infrastructure sub projects consisting of the rehabilitation, expansion or construction of schools, health centres, day care centres, homes for children, the elderly and the disabled, community centres, sports and recreational facilities and community-based water supply systems.

• Economic infrastructure sub projects including the rehabilitation of urban access and feeder roads as well as the rehabilitation or construction of community-based agro-processing facilities.