Photo: Koroi Hawkins/RNZ
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is granting US$24.4 million to repair Port Vila's wharf road which was severely damaged in the 2024 Vanuatu earthquake.
It is the latest in a stream of aid for the earthquake-shattered Port Vila.
The bank said in a statement the road is Vanuatu's main gateway for trade and tourism.
"The destruction of Port Vila's wharf road led to its closure, disrupting shipping, trade, and tourism, and hindering recovery efforts," the statement said.
Jyotsana Varma, the regional director of ADB's Pacific liaison and coordination office, added: "Reconnecting the outer islands and Port Vila through rehabilitation of the wharf road, to restore access, will impact people's lives positively, revitalize tourism, as well as trade across local communities."
The ADB said the project will also provide training, to strengthen the government's capacity to include climate adaption and disaster risk reduction into the design and construction of roads.
Meanwhile, the bank has also approved US$20 million to improve fiscal sustainability and strengthen Vanuatu's ability to respond to disasters; and US$10 million to help reduce noncommunicable diseases and improve access to quality health care across four northern provinces of Vanuatu.
The financing package is funded through ADB's Asian Development Fund, with parallel cofinancing provided by the governments of Australia and New Zealand, and by the World Bank.
The ADB said the contingency disaster funding supports three frameworks aimed at strengthening disaster resilience, including a digital health strategy.
"The rapid disbursement of the contingency disaster financing will enable the government to deliver aid to affected people quickly and efficiently after a disaster," the statement said.
Support from other countries and humanitarian organisations came in after the disaster.
This included donations to UNICEF and Vanuatu Red Cross; money coming from Australia, New Zealand, China and France; and even an Australia-based cricket team.
Peter Judge, a director of economics and research at Pacific Consulting Limited, a Port Vila-based sustainable development consultancy, said the economy was already struggling pre-earthquake.
"Remittances, aid and other income (for example, citizenship sales) will all undoubtedly continue to be important sources of foreign currency, while insurance payments will provide a short-term boost," he wrote in April. "But these all are fragile and none of them represent money earned within Vanuatu's economy."
In September, the International Monetary Fund said the country's post-earthquake recovery was underway, and was aided by strong donor support.
A UNICEF report, released this month, said funding contraints affected the response.
"Global humanitarian cuts [limited] the scale of activities despite rapid funding mobilisation in the initial phase," the report said.
"Sustained and flexible funding will be critical to consolidate recovery gains and invest in more resilient systems for children."