Enhancing Resilience in Kyrgyzstan (ERIK)

Enhancing Resilience in Kyrgyzstan (ERIK) was a US$20 million lending project approved by the World Bank in 2018 to assist the Kyrgyz government in strengthening its capacity to respond to disasters, including a US$12 million component to support the Kyrgyz Republic’s State Program on Safer Schools and Preschools. The investment will reduce the seismic vulnerability of at least 10 school facilities, benefiting over 6,000 students and teachers. ERIK laid the technical foundation for the program to be scaled up nationwide.

Additional financing in the amount of US$55 million was approved by the Bank in April 2020, of which US$39 million was allocated to increase the safer schools component in at least 30 schools. All these schools are being selected through a transparent, risk-informed process to maximize safety benefits for children, approved by the Kyrgyz Republic’s Ministry of Education and Science, the State Agency for Architecture, Construction, and Housing and Communal Services, and the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

Activities supported by the World Bank

• Civil works to retrofit vulnerable school buildings, where cost efficient, improving their seismic performance and water supply systems, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), including construction of indoor toilets, and providing energy efficiency upgrades

• Civil works to replace vulnerable school buildings, where retrofitting is not cost efficient, with buildings meeting modern standards for seismic performance, energy efficiency, and learning environment

• Preparation of an investment plan for the State Program on Safer Schools and Preschools

• Strengthening of institutional capacity of relevant agencies for school infrastructure management

Main outputs

• Seismic-resilient buildings for at least 40 schools, with improved energy efficiency, learning environments, and WASH

• Sufficient government capacity to scale up the State Program on Safer Schools nationwide, including the provision of seismic-resilient engineering retrofitting and replacement designs

• Support to the Ministry of Education in designing a school infrastructure asset management module