UNDP funds for infrastructure, job creation

The UNDP has launched a US $1.6 million programme in Togo to help the government improve or build new infrastructure and create jobs in construction and environmental improvement. The initiative will be started in Lome and in Tsevie, some 40 km north of the capital. Funding and technical assistance from the programme will help communities build schools, water fountains, public latrines, roads and market places, UNDP said last week. It will also provide sanitation equipment to support municipality clean-up programmes, while training will be given to workers, especially women. About 80 percent of Togo’s roughly 4.5 million people live in extreme poverty, according to UNDP. The country’s recent economic crisis has made many people migrate to urban areas in the hope of escaping poverty and finding jobs, it said.