Vanuatu Infrastructure Reconstruction and Improvement Project (VIRIP)

The Vanuatu Infrastructure Reconstruction and Improvement Project (VIRIP) was launched in response to Tropical Cyclone Pam, a category 5 storm that struck the island nation of Vanuatu on Friday, March 13, 2015. The education sector was among those hardest hit, with numerous schools throughout the country damaged or destroyed. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the closure of schools and lack of access to education affected at least 70,000 school-aged children (early childhood to secondary), who were at risk of having to discontinue their schooling.

A just-in-time (JiT) engagement aimed at facilitating the post-cyclone reconstruction supported VIRIP with an allocation of US$17.25 million (out of a total of US$50 million) to school infrastructure. The JiT activities included a mission to identify opportunities for the application of safer schools measures.

Activities supported by the World Bank

• Development of an informed understanding of the damage to school infrastructure and government priorities for the reconstruction of damaged schools as a result of Tropical Cyclone Pam

• A country diagnostic of the school sector with five objectives:

             1. To gain an understanding of the drivers of risk, natural hazards, and climate change impacts that might
                 compromise school infrastructure

             2. To analyze school construction building types

             3. To assess the institutional, policy, and regulatory frameworks related to education infrastructure

             4. To determine the capacity and capability of the local engineering and construction industry

             5. To ascertain the plans of other donors and partners working on school reconstruction

• Development of a roadmap for a school infrastructure reconstruction and rehabilitation program

• Consultations with the government on the infrastructure reconstruction program

Main outputs

The need to reconstruct schools damaged by Tropical Cyclone Pam presented an opportunity to improve the safety of schools in a way that fulfilled several needs:

• It met the goals of the Ministry of Education and Training for improved access to high-quality school infrastructure

• It enabled schools to double as evacuation centers, with access to reliable water supplies and adequate sanitation facilities

• It maximized the participation of the community in the labor force and raised the level of its contribution to the construction process

• It complemented the existing investments in school infrastructure

• It took advantage of reconstruction efforts to embed the principles of safer schools in existing processes, ensuring schools would be made safer in the future