Cambodian Rural Development Project

Maunsell (working previously as Meritec) in association with Fraser Thomas of New Zealand and KCEC of Cambodia have been appointed by the Cambodian Ministry of Rural Development as consultants on the Northwestern Rural Development Project.

This five-year, US$3.2 million project, is the lynchpin in the Asian Development Bank's rural development programme for Cambodia. The Project aims to reduce poverty in Northwestern Cambodia and has three components:

• Rural infrastructure development - extending the rural road network and establishing social infrastructure at district level (schools, health facilities, and markets);
• capacity building - enhancing the capacity of those in both the private and public sectors associated with the planning, design, construction, maintenance, and ongoing monitoring of project activities; and
• rural livelihood enhancement - involving and empowering the beneficiaries, establishing small-scale rural infrastructure at village level (water supply and sanitation schemes, rice drying and storage facilities, community meeting halls, etc.), and establishing savings and credit initiatives at village and community levels.

A 17 strong team of international and domestic personnel, including management specialists, community development specialists, environmental and regional planners, hydrologists, engineers and micro-finance specialists will be based in the project office in Sisophon (near the border with Thailand) for the duration.