BASIC VILLAGE SERVICES

The Organization for the Development of the Egyptian Village (ORDEV), governorates, and village councils will implement the subproject, which builds on an ongoing P.L. 480 Title III project to undertake basic village services (BVS). Subproject activities center around three main components: (1) strengthening local government project management systems; (2) constructing and maintaining small rural infrastructure selected by local governments; and (3) developing long-range decentralization programs. Under the first component, in-country and participant on-the-job training in the U.S. will be provided to 10 ORDEV staff in BVS administration and to 1,150 additional BVS staff at the governorate, district, and village levels covering basic and technical project administration. In addition to establishing a 10-member BVS project staff unit at ORDEV, operation manuals will be developed covering BVS guidelines of project design, finance and budgeting, infrastructure maintenance, and environmental analysis. Finally, a village book system will be established for social and economic planning and capital budgeting, and annual implementation plans will be drawn up for the governorate and villages. Under the second component, some 1,000 rural infrastructure development activities, encompassing feeder roads, small canals, potable water and sanitary drainage systems, and pilot energy projects will be constructed by contractors in 449 villages of the nine selected governorates. The villages will choose the activities, submit them to the governorate for review and incorporate them into a regional plan which will in turn be submitted to ORDEV and an interagency committee for fund allocation. The last component will be accomplished by ORDEV and local government units who will conduct policy studies of local government taxing authority and budgeting procedures. Findings will be presented through publications and conferences. A bibliography (XD-AAF-811-1) is included. Amendment No. 1 of 2/23/82 increases funding by $75 million in order to allow more local government units to participate in the program. (XD-AAU-314-A) Amendment No. 2 (of FY82) increases funding by $80 million in order to complete third year funding for the 11 Governorates and to allow the North and South Sinai Governorates to participate in the program. (PD-AAR-010) Update on renewable energy activities: Work on renewable energy projects (biogas) was held up. (PD-AAL-832, PD-AAQ-409)