SANTO DOMINGO- The World Bank Group will allocate $100 million to develop housing programs in the Dominican Republic over the next five years, Alexandria Valerio, its representative in the country, announced yesterday, detailing the investment strategy that the organization will implement.
It is projected that, with the financial support of this international organization, at least 44,000 people will have financingto acquire decent housing by 2026, and the program will emphasize women, 70% of whom do not own their own homes.
The organization's executive explained that the investment portfolio is $1.8 billion, to be invested over five years, through various sectoral programs, distributed across three pillars of improvement that aim to impact public services to citizens, improve the quality of jobs, and enhance the capacity to respond to climate change.
One way to improve the service, according to the World Bank representative, is for the country to achieve the goal of diversifying its energy matrix, incorporating more production from renewable sources that contribute to mitigating climate change.
In fact, 300 million will be allocated for the generation of renewable energy.
Valerio explained that they identified opportunities for improvement so that economic growth also has a particular impact on Dominican women and girls.
According to the Country Partnership Framework 2022-2026, the World Bank will support the Dominican Republic in reforming fiscal space and public spending to improve efficiency in the electricity sector and enhance the coverage and quality of health and social security networks.
Climate change
The World Bank Group will support reforms to promote the sustainability of landscapes and natural resources, water management, and strengthen the country's capacity to cope with external climate phenomena.
To improve the national response to climate change, improvements are needed in various basic services, such as access to clean water. In this regard, Valerio reported that they expect to increase the number of people with access to water sixfold by 2026.
Meanwhile, 90,000 more people will have access to improved wastewater treatment, and 34,609 will be able to count on new irrigation or drainage services that prevent contamination and other risks related to water accumulation.
They also seek to create initiatives that will drive the reduction of five million carbon emissions related to forests by 2025.
Quality of spending
After evaluating the citizen service sectors, the World Bank projects that the Bonoluz subsidy numbers will increase by 33% by the end of 2026, for which they plan to conduct a survey of vulnerable households that have little access to the service.
In that order, it presented a scheme in which the multilateral organization highlights the need for the Dominican electricity sector to reduce losses, which stood at 33.5% for 2020, according to the organization.
The goal would be to achieve a reduction percentage of 21.1% by 2026 and, subsequently, for the metric to be only 12%, he said.
Jobs
One of the most important variables when evaluating the quality of jobs is education, which motivates the World Bank to make suggestions to the government sector to improve the quality of education and training in the Dominican Republic.
At least 20% of children in vulnerable areas will be language competent by 2026, highlighting foreign language learning levels as a basis for strengthening knowledge and improving future opportunities for quality jobs, according to the country alliance framework.
During the investment period, the World Bank will collaborate with the government to integrate modernized government services into 300 companies nationwide over the five-year period.
Source: Diario Libre with modified text.
