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Document of The World Bank
FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Report No: 75941-SS
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION
PROJECT APPRAISAL DOCUMENT
ON A
PROPOSED CREDIT
IN THE AMOUNT OF SDR 14 MILLION (US$21 MILLION EQUIVALENT)
TO THE
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH SUDAN
FOR A
SAFETY NET AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
June 7, 2013
Social Protection, East and Southern Africa East Africa Country Department 4 Africa Region
This document has a restricted distribution and may be used by recipients only in the performance of their official duties. Its contents may not otherwise be disclosed without World Bank authorization.
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CURRENCY EQUIVALENTS
(Exchange Rate Effective April 30, 2013)
Currency Unit = South Sudanese Pound (SSP) 1 SSP US$1
= =
US$0.33 4.41 SSP
US$1 1 SDR
= =
SDR 0.66269052 US$1.509
FISCAL YEAR
July 1 – June 30
ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS
AGI Adolescent Girls Initiative BDC Boma Development Committee BP Bank Policy BRAC Building Resources Across Countries CDD Community-Driven Development CPA Comprehensive Peace Agreement DA Designated Account ESIA Environmental and Social Impact Assessment ESMP Environmental and Social Management Plan ESSAF Environmental and Social Screening and Assessment Framework FMA Financial Management Assessment GDP Gross Domestic Product GNI Gross National Income GOSS Government of the Republic of South Sudan ICB International Competitive Bidding IDA International Development Association IFR Interim Unaudited Financial Report IP Implementation Partner IPF Investment Project Financing IPMP Integrated Pest Management Plan ISN Interim Strategy Note ISP Implementation Support Plan LCS Least Cost Selection LGA Local Government Act LGB Local Government Board LGI Local Government Institution LIC Low Income Country MDTF-SS Multi-Donor Trust Fund for South Sudan MIS Management Information System
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MoAFCRD Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Cooperatives, and Rural Development MoCYS Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Sport MoE Ministry of Education MoFEP Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning MoGCSW Ministry of Gender, Child, and Social Welfare MoLPSHRD Ministry of Labor, Public Service and Human Resource Development LGSD Local Governance and Service Delivery Program NCB National Competitive Bidding NGO Non-Governmental Organization OP Operational Policy ORAF Operational Risk Assessment Framework PAD Project Appraisal Document PDC Payam Development Committee PDO Project Development Objective PFM Public Financial Management PIU Project Implementation Unit POM Project Operations Manual PW Public Works QBS Quality Based Selection QCBS Quality and Cost Based Selection SDR Special Drawing Rights SNSDP Safety Net and Skills Development Project SP Social Protection SSDP South Sudan Development Plan SSEFCRP South Sudan Emergency Food Crisis Response Project SSN Social Safety Net SSP South Sudanese Pound SSS Single-Source Selection TA Technical Assistance TOR Terms of Reference TST Technical Support Team UNDP United Nations Development Program USD United States Dollar
Regional Vice President: Makhtar Diop
Country Director: Bella Bird Sector Director: Ritva Reinikka Sector Manager: Lynne Sherburne-Benz
Task Team Leader: Endashaw Tadesse Gossa
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SOUTH SUDAN
SAFETY NET AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
I. STRATEGIC CONTEXT .................................................................................................1
A. Country Context ............................................................................................................ 1
B. Situations of Urgent Need of Assistance or Capacity Constraints ............................... 2
C. Sectoral and Institutional Context ................................................................................. 3
D. Higher Level Objectives to which the Project Contributes .......................................... 4
II. PROJECT DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVE ..................................................................5
A. PDO............................................................................................................................... 5
Project Beneficiaries ........................................................................................................... 5
PDO Level Results Indicators ............................................................................................. 5
III. PROJECT DESCRIPTION ..............................................................................................6
A. Project Components ...................................................................................................... 6
B. Project Financing ........................................................................................................ 12
Project Cost and Financing ............................................................................................... 12
C. Lessons Learned and Reflected in the Project Design ................................................ 12
IV. IMPLEMENTATION .....................................................................................................13
A. Institutional and Implementation Arrangements ........................................................ 13
B. Results Monitoring and Evaluation ............................................................................ 15
C. Sustainability............................................................................................................... 15
V. KEY RISKS AND MITIGATION MEASURES ..........................................................17
A. Risk Ratings Summary Table ..................................................................................... 17
B. Overall Risk Rating Explanation ................................................................................ 17
VI. APPRAISAL SUMMARY ..............................................................................................17
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A. Economic and Financial Analyses .............................................................................. 17
B. Technical ..................................................................................................................... 18
C. Financial Management ................................................................................................ 18
D. Procurement ................................................................................................................ 19
E. Social (including Safeguards) ..................................................................................... 19
F. Environment (including Safeguards) .......................................................................... 20
Annex 1: Results Framework and Monitoring .........................................................................23
Annex 2: Detailed Project Description .......................................................................................28
Annex 3: Implementation Arrangements ..................................................................................42
Annex 4: Operational Risk Assessment Framework (ORAF) .................................................75
Annex 5: Implementation Support Plan ....................................................................................79
Annex 6: Environmental and Social Screening and Assessment Framework (ESSAF) .......81
Annex 7: Economic and Financial Analyses ..............................................................................88
Annex 8: Governance and Accountability .................................................................................97
Annex 9: Grievance Redress Mechanism ................................................................................102
Annex 10: Communications Strategy.......................................................................................104
Annex 11: Lessons Learned from Previous South Sudan Interventions ..............................106
v
.
PAD DATA SHEET
South Sudan
Safety Net and Skills Development (P143915) PROJECT APPRAISAL DOCUMENT
.
AFRICA
AFTSE
Report No.: PAD466 .
Basic Information
Project ID Lending Instrument EA Category Team Leader
P143915 Investment Project Financing
B - Partial Assessment Endashaw Tadesse Gossa
Project Implementation Start Date Project Implementation End Date
21-Jun-2013 30-Jun-2017
Expected Effectiveness Date Expected Closing Date
30-Sep-2013 31-Dec-2017
Joint IFC
No
Sector Manager Sector Director Country Director Regional Vice President
Lynne D. Sherburne-Benz
Ritva S. Reinikka Bella Bird Makhtar Diop
.
Borrower: Republic of South Sudan
Responsible Agency: Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning
Contact: Moses Mabior Deu Title: Director of Aid Coordination
Telephone No.:
249955239239 Email:
.
Project Financing Data(in USD Million)
[ ] Loan [ ] Grant [ ] Other
[ X ] Credit [ ] Guarantee
Total Project Cost: 21.00 Total Bank Financing: 21.00
Total Cofinancing: Financing Gap: 0.00 .
Financing Source Amount
BORROWER/RECIPIENT 0.00
International Development Association (IDA) 21.00
Total 21.00
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.
Expected Disbursements (in USD Million)
Fiscal Year 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Annual 0.00 3.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 3.00
Cumulative 0.00 3.00 8.00 13.00 18.00 21.00 .
Proposed Development Objective(s)
Provide access to income opportunities and temporary employment to the poor and vulnerable and put in place building blocks for a social protection system. .
Components
Component Name Cost (USD Millions)
Social Protection System and Project Management 5.50
Public Works 11.00
Skills Development 3.50
Unallocated 1.00 .
Institutional Data
Sector Board
Social Protection .
Sectors / Climate Change
Sector (Maximum 5 and total % must equal 100)
Major Sector Sector % Adaptation Co-benefits %
Mitigation Co-benefits %
Health and other social services Other social services 100
Total 100
I certify that there is no Adaptation and Mitigation Climate Change Co-benefits information applicable to this project. .
Themes
Theme (Maximum 5 and total % must equal 100)
Major theme Theme %
Social protection and risk management Improving labor markets 50
Social protection and risk management Social safety nets 50
Total 100 .
Compliance
Policy
Does the project depart from the CAS in content or in other significant Yes [ ] No [ X ]
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respects? .
Does the project require any waivers of Bank policies? Yes [ ] No [ X ]
Have these been approved by Bank management? Yes [ ] No [ ]
Is approval for any policy waiver sought from the Board? Yes [ ] No [ X ]
Does the project meet the Regional criteria for readiness for implementation? Yes [ X ] No [ ] .
Safeguard Policies Triggered by the Project Yes No
Environmental Assessment OP/BP 4.01 X
Natural Habitats OP/BP 4.04 X
Forests OP/BP 4.36 X
Pest Management OP 4.09 X
Physical Cultural Resources OP/BP 4.11 X
Indigenous Peoples OP/BP 4.10 X
Involuntary Resettlement OP/BP 4.12 X
Safety of Dams OP/BP 4.37 X
Projects on International Waterways OP/BP 7.50 X
Projects in Disputed Areas OP/BP 7.60 X .
Legal Covenants
Name Recurrent Due Date Frequency
Safeguards 30-Mar-2014
Description of Covenant
The Recipient shall have prepared and adopted umbrella ESMPs and an IPMP based on the national Environmental and Social Screening Assessment Framework (ESSAF) in form and substance acceptable to the Association within 6 months of the Effective Date of this Agreement, and thereafter ensure that all Public Works activities are carried out in accordance therewith.
Name Recurrent Due Date Frequency
Safeguards X Yearly
Description of Covenant
The Recipient shall ensure that no activity under the Project affects Natural Habitats, Forests, Physical Cultural Resources, or involves the Involuntary Resettlement of the local population.
Name Recurrent Due Date Frequency
Safeguards X Yearly
Description of Covenant
The Recipient shall ensure that any activity potentially involving ground water does not affect adversely its quantity or quality and is confined to existing water delivery schemes and that no new dams will be constructed under the Project nor will any works or other Project activities depend on an existing dam or the safety of an existing dam.
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.
Conditions
Name Type
Project Operations Manual Effectiveness
Description of Condition
The Recipient shall have prepared and adopted the Project Operations Manual in accordance with the provisions of Section I.B.1 of Schedule 2 to the Financing Agreement.
Name Type
Annual Work Plan and Budget Effectiveness
Description of Condition
The Recipient shall have prepared the Annual Work Plan and Budget for the first year of Project implementation, in form and substance acceptable to the Association.
Name Type
Technical Support Team Effectiveness
Description of Condition
The Recipient shall have established the Technical Support Team (“TST”) with a mandate, staffing and resources acceptable to the Association; and recruited the Project Manager, financial management specialist and procurement specialist selected in accordance with the provisions of Section III of Schedule 2 to the Financing Agreement.
Team Composition
Bank Staff
Name Title Specialization Unit
Hassine Hedda Finance Officer Finance CTRLA
Krishna Pidatala Senior Operations Officer
ICT TWICT
Antonia T. Koleva Operations Officer Operations AFTSE
Endashaw Tadesse Gossa
Senior Operations Officer
Team Lead AFTSE
Varalakshmi Vemuru Senior Social Development Specialist
Social Safeguards AFTCS
Adenike Sherifat Oyeyiola
Sr Financial Management Specialist
Financial Management AFTME
Richard Olowo Lead Procurement Specialist
Procurement AFTPE
Siobhan McInerney-Lankford
Senior Counsel Counsel LEGAM
Colin Andrews Social Protection Specialist
Social Protection HDNSP
Thembi Malena Kumapley
Program Assistant Administrative Support AFTSW
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Begashaw Wukaw Woldu
Technical Specialist Public Works AFTSE
Yoseph Abdissa Deressa Sr Social Protection Specialist
Governance and Accountability
AFTSE
Albino Okeny Olak Communications Officer Communications AFRSC
Diego Garrido Martin Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist
Monitoring & Evaluation AFTDE
Akwii Anne Kennox Team Assistant Administrative Support AFMJB
Museme Munira Issa Gender Specialist Gender AFTP2
Emily Weedon Chapman Social Protection Specialist
Social Protection AFTSW
Muderis Abdulahi Mohammed
Sr Social Protection Specialist
Institutional Arrangements
AFTSE
Anjani Kumar Senior Procurement Specialist
Procurement AFTPE
Bedilu Amare Reta Consultant Environmental Safeguards
AFTTR
Non Bank Staff
Name Title Office Phone City
Philip Blue Consultant
Maikel Lieuw-Kie-Song Consultant
Ashutosh Raina Consultant
Espen Beer Prydz Consultant .
Locations
Country First Administrative Division
Location Planned Actual Comments
South Sudan Central Equatoria State
Central Equatoria State
X Location: Juba City
South Sudan Jonglei State Jonglei X Locations: Bor County and Ayod County
South Sudan Eastern Equatoria Eastern Equatoria
X Locations: Torit County and Kapoeta East County
South Sudan Warrap State Warrap State X Locations: Gogrial West County and Tonj South County
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SOUTH SUDAN
SAFETY NET AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT PROJECT (SNSDP)
I. STRATEGIC CONTEXT
A. Country Context
1. Almost two years after its July 9, 2011 independence, South Sudan finds itself in a volatile situation, facing formidable development challenges. Incidences of tensions between Sudan and South Sudan, clashes between the Sudan People’s Liberation Army and militia groups, and competition over natural resources between South Sudan’s many tribes are contributing to protracted conflict and new displacement across many states of South Sudan. Cross-border conflict has persisted in the disputed areas of Abyei, South Kordofan and the Blue Nile, rebel groups have conducted destabilizing attacks, and state armies on both sides have engaged in fighting. This violence is estimated to have displaced over 500,000 people in the past two years alone. Moreover, following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005, the influx of returnees has triggered rapid changes in the country, further exacerbating vulnerability of South Sudanese households. Key contributing factors of vulnerability in South Sudan include disparities in income and resource access, climatic shocks, food insecurity, scarcity of social services, poor state of physical, economic and administrative infrastructure, and woefully inadequate employment opportunities, especially for unskilled labor and youth population.
2. The unfolding crisis is taking place against a backdrop of persistent poverty. The country’s Gross National Income (GNI) per capita is US$1,220 (Atlas method). Although South Sudan GNI per capita narrowly exceeds the IDA eligibility cutoff for 2011, GDP and GNI are estimated to decrease substantially in 2012 and only partly recover in 2013. Development needs of South Sudan are enormous with 50.6 percent of the population living below the poverty line, which is calculated at 72.9 SSP1 per person per month. There is substantial variance on poverty rates across regions – Northern Bahr El Ghazal (79 percent) vs. Upper Nile (26 percent), and across urban areas (24.4 percent) and rural areas (55.4 percent).
3. In January 2012, the government of South Sudan shut down its oil production, resulting in the loss of 98 percent of its annual revenue. As a consequence, within four months of the shutdown, inflation soared from 47.8 percent to 79.5 percent. Moreover, South Sudan is a net importer of food items and the loss of this main foreign currency earner intensified the already dire food security situation in the country. By May 2012, food prices had increased by 38 percent and the availability of staple foods in local markets was limited. The recent restarting of oil production in South Sudan is promising, though it would be sometime before revenues start accruing.
4. Basic human development indicators place South Sudan among the poorest countries on
1 Approximately US$24
2
the continent. Maternal mortality is the highest in the world (2,054 deaths for every 100,000 live births); the infant mortality rate is 102 (per 1,000 live births); 33 percent of children under five are underweight; only 27 percent of adults above age 15 are literate; less than half of primary school age children enroll in primary school (51 percent of boys and 37 percent of girls); and only 10 percent complete it (compared with primary school completion rates of 62 percent in Sub Saharan Africa). In addition, only 44 percent of households live within a 5km radius of a health care facility unit, one of the lowest rates in the world, and at least 30 percent of the population lacks access to safe water while a mere 7 percent has access to improved sanitation facilities.
5. Agriculture is the dominant activity of households in South Sudan with only 15 percent of the population engaged in wage employment. Even within the wealthiest quintile, 57.4 percent work chiefly in agriculture, thus exposing the majority of the population to volatilities of the growing and harvest season. Erratic weather patterns, such as delayed rains and subsequent flooding, have also increased food insecurity and caused an estimated deficit of nearly a third of the national cereal requirement for 2012. Recent estimates show that 4.1 million people (40 percent of population) are likely to be food insecure in 2013, a marginal decline from 4.7 million for 2012.
6. In terms of demographic characteristics, South Sudan is a young country. Half of the population (51 percent) is under the age of eighteen and 72 percent under the age of thirty. Substantial numbers of young South Sudanese declare themselves as not working and looking for a job. Unemployment is highest among the youth, with around one fifth of those under 24 recorded as unemployed. Aside from being a cost to society and an individual welfare loss, youth unemployment, particularly among men, is recognized as a potential trigger for social instability. Many youth are former soldiers so ensuring that they have employment opportunities is seen as an essential part of avoiding their return to conflict or other violent activities.
7. Gender disparities are dramatic. Female headed households (28.6 percent) are among the poorest, with 56.9 percent below the poverty line compared with 48.1 percent of male headed households. War-induced poverty, displacement and trauma have weakened kinship and community ties and negatively affected social support mechanisms and intra-communal collaboration. There is thus a strong imperative that community mobilization and decision making processes engender principles of participation, inclusion, transparency and accountability; to prevent the triggering of conflict stresses with roots in diverse historical, cultural and ethnic characteristics.
B. Situations of Urgent Need of Assistance or Capacity Constraints
8. Peace and nation building challenges of the newly independent Republic of South Sudan (RSS) remains daunting. Since the signing of the CPA in 2005, UNHCR has supported the return of more than 334,000 refugees from exile in the CAR, the DRC, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. The total number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in South Sudan was estimated at 560,161 by January 2012. During 2012, local conflict spurred the internal displacement of some 80,000 South Sudanese in Jonglei State, in addition to the large number of displaced in various parts of the country. This continued large-scale movement of IDPs and returnees from countries of asylum, together with the incomplete process of demobilization and
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reintegration of various military and paramilitary units, present many challenges to the country. In particular, the reestablishment of livelihoods is a slow and fragile process, and a high proportion of returnees suffer significant food insecurity. The 2010 multi-donor evaluation of support to conflict prevention and peace-building activities in South Sudan found that donor supported activities have not contributed significantly to a durable reintegration of returnees largely due to a piecemeal approach to assistance with different agencies emphasizing different interventions (e.g. service provision versus protection) and few developing a longer-term and more holistic approach towards reinforcing the absorption capacity of communities.
9. South Sudan has limited capacity of government, civil society, private sector and community at large as a post conflict and fragile state. Humanitarian aid financed by donors and delivered by international aid agencies and NGOs has been the primary mechanism for providing basic services, including social protection services, to the poor people of South Sudan. In addition to the limited coverage of the needy through humanitarian aid, there is also a concern that it undermines the national and local capacities which could be detrimental to the state building process and the social and political contract between a state and its citizens.
C. Sectoral and Institutional Context
10. Government capacity is currently limited for achieving the SSDP’s social protection agenda. To date, the majority of SSN interventions have been supported by development partners and implemented by NGOs. Recognizing the need for increasing Government capacity to oversee and coordinate these fragmented programs, the Government has established a Social Protection Core Team led by the Ministry of Gender, Child, and Social Welfare (MoGCSW) with membership of the Ministries of Finance, Education, and Health, the Local Government Board (LGB), and the Commission of War Widows and Veterans, as well as one member of the National Parliament. Leveraging and strengthening the presence and capacities of Local Government for community-level coordination and implementation of SSN is seen as key to deepen the impact.
11. There are a number of Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) implemented programs that, while limited in scope, are showing positive impacts within their target populations. For example, the World Bank-financed Food Price Crisis Trust Fund Project has reached 216,885 direct beneficiaries through a network of five NGOs coordinated by Government. The Adolescent Girls Initiative (AGI) Project, successfully implemented by an international NGO under Government supervision, has also shown notable results in stimulating earning opportunities for young women.
12. The Government has identified youth employment and gender equality as developmental priorities. Labor-intensive public works can be a stabilizing force providing employment opportunities to women and especially youth without alternative livelihoods, while at the same time yielding valuable infrastructure investments. An inclusive and transparent community-based process with integration of Youth in the identification of beneficiaries, and prioritization and implementation of public work and skills development activities will contribute to strengthening the social fabric, promoting social cohesion and contributing to overall societal stability. This is of particular importance in South Sudan’s fragile and post-conflict setting where “disengaged youth bear high short-term risks of social unrest and longer-term challenges to a
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nation’s economic development” (Andrews and Kryeziu, 2013). In addition, international evidence shows a positive impact of public works from a gender perspective, such as increased control over resources, improved societal status, and benefits from assets created.
13. South Sudan’s population of 8.3 million per the 2008 census is predominantly rural (nearly 80 percent).The Government has identified youth employment and gender equality as developmental priorities. The SSDP identifies the need to target rural areas as they lag behind urban areas in terms of poverty and other social indicators. However, the urban population growth rates for South Sudan, based on current trends, are expected to be double those of rural rates in the next two decades.2 Juba city and all other urban centers have larger concentrations of returnees, with a disproportionately large population of youth. Against a backdrop of a nearly 70 percent of young and unemployed population, the growing industry and services sectors in the urban areas offer potential economic opportunities for the youth. These factors thus provide the imperative to address social protection needs in both urban centers and rural counties in South Sudan.
14. There is an urgent need to provide direct support to vulnerable households and put in place policy, operational, and governance elements of a national Safety Net system in South Sudan. Given the poverty and vulnerability of the South Sudanese population, and the continuing social, political, and economic instability faced by the country, there is an immediate need for interventions to address short, medium and long term challenges. First of all, there is a need to set a “bridge” to the limited livelihood opportunities in the agricultural sector and gap in private sector generation of employment and limited agricultural productivity. A labor-intensive Public Works program could be a short term stabilizing force providing employment opportunities to those without alternative livelihoods, while at the same time yielding valuable infrastructure investments. In addition, for the medium term, support to addressing “employability in fragile situations where violence may have eroded skills and work practices” (WDR 2011) is critical for the unemployed and underemployed youth of South Sudan. As a new country, South Sudan faces innumerable development challenges and as such, needs to start building institutional blocks to overcome them in the longer term. The country’s population will be assisted through an SSN after this transition period as the Government re-establishes basic services and infrastructure, and expands its economy creating broad-based employment and livelihood opportunities vital not only for poverty reduction, but central to maintaining peace and security.
D. Higher Level Objectives to which the Project Contributes
15. The national development priorities are outlined in the South Sudan Development Plan (SSDP) 2011-2013, which aims to ensure a united and peaceful new nation by building strong foundations for good governance, economic prosperity, and enhanced quality of life for all. The SSDP identifies the importance of social protection in the achievement of the country’s development objectives under its Social and Human Development Pillar. The SSDP’s specific social protection objective is to work progressively to reduce risk, vulnerability, poverty, and economic and social exclusion throughout South Sudan. The World Bank is well positioned to
2 World Bank, 2011: Republic of South Sudan: Issues in Urban Development, Phase 1 – An Overview of the Urban Landscape in South Sudan significantly altering the rural-urban population distribution.
5
assist the Government of South Sudan in this regard. The rationale for social protection in the SSDP is an emphasis on critical support to rural and urban families, thus improving their health and nutritional status, and educational opportunities of their children; while at the same time injecting resources into local markets.
16. The proposed project is directly related to the South Sudan Interim Strategy Note (ISN) for South Sudan for FY13-14 which focuses on helping the country move from fragility to stability. The ISN has two clusters. The first cluster will support activities which build accountable state institutions that can deliver basic services to underserved populations, both by building central state capacity to manage the macro-economy and national fiduciary and statistical systems, and by developing local government capacity to deliver services. The second cluster focuses on building public and private institutions that can generate and sustain improved livelihoods and create jobs for the population. The SNSDP would directly contribute to the objectives of both clusters by providing support to GOSS for developing the building blocks of an SSN program focused on livelihood opportunities through labor-intensive public works and skills development.
II. PROJECT DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVE
A. PDO
17. The proposed Project Development Objective (PDO) is to provide access to income opportunities and temporary employment to the poor and vulnerable and put in place building blocks for a social protection system. The building blocks are understood to be a social protection policy, and operational tools to improve beneficiary identification and registration, monitor program, and ensure that cash benefits are transferred to eligible beneficiaries in a secure, transparent and timely manner.
Project Beneficiaries
18. The primary target of the proposed project is poor and vulnerable households with limited or no income and employment opportunities. During the four years of implementation, the proposed SNSDP aims to benefit an estimated 25,000 poor households (21,500 through public works and 3,500 through skills development). The proposed project would be implemented in four states, i.e. three states that would cover one urban center and one rural county in each, and Juba city from the fourth state. These include Bor and Ayod Counties in Jonglei state, Gogrial West, and Tonj South Counties in Warrap state, Torit and Kapoeta East Counties in Eastern Equatoria state, and Juba city in Central Equatoria state. The project locations were selected through a consultative process with Government, at both the national and state levels, as well as other key stakeholders. In order to maintain trust and transparency, during the first year of project implementation, the proposed project would use robust criteria for geographic targeting of payams and bomas. As outlined in the Project Operations Manual (POM), a participatory, inclusive and transparent community-based targeting process at the Boma level would identify beneficiaries for the public works and skills development programs.
PDO Level Results Indicators
19. The PDO level results indicators would measure the outcomes of the proposed project
6
which are to: (a) put in place the building blocks for a social protection system, (b) provide youth and women with income from temporary employment opportunities, and (c) expand access to income generating opportunities through skills development and business start-up activities. The PDO level results indicators include the following (detailed indicators can be found in Annex 1):
• Number of direct project beneficiaries, of which female (%) (core indicators); • Social Protection Policy developed and submitted for discussion; • Beneficiaries of public works complying with eligibility criteria; and • Targeting mechanism to select poor youth for skills development training designed
and tested.
III. PROJECT DESCRIPTION
A. Project Components
20. The proposed Project would set in place the building blocks for a social protection system, including immediate management needs as well as longer-term elements. At the same time the project would address the urgent needs of poor households in the short and medium terms through financing public works activities and skills development. The SNSDP would achieve its objective through three inter-related components.
21. Component 1 (Social Protection System and Project Management) is envisaged to support the establishment of building blocks for an SP system including the creation of management capacity to: (a) target the poorest and register program beneficiaries; (b) monitor program implementation and measure results; (c) transfer payments to beneficiaries and monitor accountability; and (d) strengthen government capacity for policy making and coordination of social protection activities. These tools are needed for the implementation of Component 2 (Public Works) and Component 3 (Skills Development). As soon as the necessary tools have been put in place by Component 1, especially the targeting and beneficiary selection processes, components 2 and 3 would begin implementation.
Component 1 – Social Protection System and Project Management – US$5.5 million
22. Component 1 would seek to develop basic features of a social protection system, as outlined in the SSDP 2011-2013, and build Government capacity to implement the proposed project, through two interrelated sub-components. This component would focus on providing support to GOSS in the development of a social protection policy, as well as putting in place the necessary implementation and coordination capacity. Accordingly, the first year of the project would focus on key activities including strengthening the implementation capacity of the lead implementing agency that is MoAFCRD, by establishing a Technical Support Team (TST), recruitment of Implementing Partner NGOs, developing necessary tools and procedures for the implementation of components 2 and 3, the monitoring and evaluation of the project as a whole, and the designing of a communications strategy and plan.
23. Sub-Component 1a - Support for a Social Protection System: This subcomponent would support GOSS to put in place the building blocks of an SP system through assistance with the drafting of a social protection policy and putting in place a set of basic operational tools to
7
ensure that: (i) safety net programs reach the poorest and most vulnerable; (ii) the Government has the adequate mechanism to gather information and monitor progress; and (iii) there is a formal system to transfer benefits in a secure, timely, and predictable manner. The SP strengthening would define the priority areas for interventions and the institutional and implementation arrangements that would protect the poor and vulnerable population from extreme poverty and vulnerability to various shocks. The operational tools for targeting, identification, and registry of beneficiaries, and payment transfer mechanisms would form the platform for the delivery of social assistance to the poor and vulnerable. The Government has begun the process of developing a National Social Protection Policy under the leadership of the MoGCSW, which includes the engagement of a wide-range of stakeholders at the national and state levels to secure a national consensus on the objectives and functions of a future social protection system. The proposed project would contribute in this manner by financing the following activities:
• Workshops at national and state levels to ensure participation of stakeholders, including Civil Society Organizations and community leaders, politicians, NGOs, and Development Partners;
• South–South learning visits for key policy makers to countries with relevant SP experience so the South Sudanese could learn from them; and
• Consultancy and non-consultancy services for research and knowledge generation to inform the SP policy making.
24. This subcomponent would also finance activities that would help to develop operational tools for the Social Safety Net and the entry point for the Public Works and Skills Development components of SNSDP:
• A common targeting mechanism to identify potential beneficiaries for Component 1 (Public Works) and Component 2 (Skills Development). Based on the eligibility criteria, registered beneficiaries would be selected separately to participate in either the public works activities or skills development programs to ensure greater equity. Table 4 in Annex 3 provides a brief, sequential presentation of the targeting and beneficiary selection process;
• A beneficiaries registry, which, along with the beneficiary identification mechanism, would be the basis for developing a national database and inform all SP interventions in the country;
• Develop an integrated Management Information System (MIS) to track and monitor the progress made by programs at the beneficiary level. Integration into the MIS of a grievance management system to ensure that beneficiaries can exercise their rights and make complaints as needed;
• A payment transfer and accountability system that would guarantee secure, predictable and timely payments to beneficiaries of their entitlements while minimizing administrative and transaction costs;
• Development of M&E tools including regular targeting assessment, beneficiary survey, and transfer mechanisms; Community Score Cards on quality and satisfaction of services;
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25. Sub-Component 1b - Capacity Building and Project Management: The MoAFCRD would serve as the lead Project Implementing Agency and would be responsible for the overall management and coordination of the proposed Project. The major implementation challenge it faces is weak capacity and limited implementation experience so this component would finance activities that would strengthen the project management and supervision capacity of MoAFCRD through financing. During the first year of project implementation, key activities that would be implemented are:
• Establishing a TST at the federal, state and county levels. This subcomponent would systematically build MoAFCRD capacity at the Federal, State and County levels to carry out their assigned respective roles and responsibilities under the proposed project; and
• The contracting of IP NGOs and private sector expertise and capacities to implement the Public Works and Skills Development components of SNSDP.
• Design of a Communications strategy and plan and a communications campaign to be launched in order to inform federal, state, county and community level stakeholders about the project including its objectives, operational procedures and rules, and the rationale for the limited geographical scope and relatively small number of beneficiaries.
Component 2 – Public Works – US$11 million
26. The objective of Component 2 is to provide income for youth and women from poor households through a seasonal transfer, linked to participation in public works, in order to increase and sustain household assets, and smooth consumption during lean seasons. These paid labor intensive public works would help build, repair, or maintain local infrastructure that would benefit the community at large. Component 2 would specifically finance:
• Wages/transfers3 for the beneficiaries participating in the public works activities for 10 days/month for three months4 in a year in rural counties and four months in urban counties;
• Equipment, materials and skilled labor that would be necessary inputs to complete the selected public works with reasonable quality5; and
• The administrative cost of the Implementing Partner (IP) NGOs. Given the emphasis on labor intensive works, the proposed Component would finance primarily wages for the participants which would not be less than 60 percent of the budget allocated to this component while 10 percent will be allocated for equipment, materials and skilled labor and 30 percent for administrative cost of the IP NGOs.
27. NGOs, contracted as Implementing Partners by the MoAFCRD, would be responsible for
3 at $US$3 per day per beneficiary 4 The three months would coincide with the peak hunger months, i.e. right before the agricultural season that ranges from December to April. 5 These may include hand tools that would be used by participants and material inputs such as cement, nails, corrugated iron sheets which some of the public work activities may require and skilled labor such as masons and carpenters who would provide technical supervision and guidance to the public work participants.
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the overall technical implementation and supervision of the public works activities and would (i) facilitate awareness creation, community mobilization, community-based targeting, beneficiary identification, and prioritization of public works activities; (ii) ensure proper implementation of the public works, as outlined in the POM, including providing technical inputs for finalizing designs for PW activities, procurement of materials and equipment, and make payments to beneficiaries on a monthly basis; and (iii) ensure inclusion and transparency, conflict-sensitiveness, information disclosure and display.
28. Given the large number of poor households, the underlying conflict stresses, and the risk of elite capture, a conflict sensitive social analysis process led by Boma Development Committees (BDCs) would have the following key outcomes: (i) list of the poor households (see Table 4 for details on targeting), (ii) a priority list of social and economic infrastructure activities for repair and rehabilitation under Public Works approved by the Payam Development Committee (PDC), and (iii) Boma level infrastructure needs list that could inform activities of county/state governments, NGOs and other donor agencies active in the area. Annex 2 Table 1 provides details on the community role in implementation of Public Works. Indicative activities (details in Annex 2 Table 2) include (a) small flood control structures to protect farmlands and residential areas from seasonal flooding, (b) ponds and other water harvesting structures to provide water for animal consumption and irrigation; (c) spring development and hand dug wells for drinking water for human consumption; (d) soil and water conservation activities such as nursery development, terracing, and tree planting to protect farm lands from erosion and degradation; (e) feeder roads to facilitate access to services such as markets, schools and health facilities; (f) storage facilities to reduce postharvest losses; and (g) collection and proper disposal of solid waste, cleaning of drainage channels and environmental sanitation activities in urban areas. The selected public works activities would meet the criteria of being technically, socially and economically viable, environmentally sound, and ensure participation of women.
29. The Public Works Component would have a participatory and gender sensitive approach that would take into account the special needs of women and ensure that a minimum of 30 percent are able to participate in the activities. In order for this to happen, the selected public works activities would be in close proximity to villages and appropriately fitting to South Sudanese women. Through their representation on the BDCs, women would also be fully involved in the decision making, including in selection of the types of public works activities.
30. Community oversight of Public Works implementation would be done through a five-member Community Supervision Team (CST) nominated at the Boma level which would track design specifications, supervise implementation progress, oversee measurement of work and payment of wages, and certification of work completion. County Administration would register the works completed in their books to provide for operations budget and user-groups would take over the responsibility for maintenance. Spot checks by County Core team and TST members, third party verification, and Community score cards would be used to monitor the integrity of the implementation process, especially the accuracy and timeliness of payments to beneficiaries. In addition, a Public Works Beneficiary Registry and Verification Mechanism would ensure payments are made to eligible beneficiaries. This mechanism would capture the following data on beneficiaries: (i) name; (ii) age; (iii) gender; (iv) village / location; (v) number of days worked; (vi) wage; and (vii) verification of attendance. A document, based on a template included in the POM, would list the beneficiaries drawn from the registry who are selected to
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participate in the Public Works activities. These participating beneficiaries would collectively sign this document to indicate their agreement to participate in these activities on the terms and conditions indicated therein.
Component 3 – Skills Development – US$3.5 million
31. The objective of Component 3 is to provide youth from poor and vulnerable households with access to livelihood opportunities through comprehensive skills development training comprised of technical, entrepreneurship and life skills. Through this component, short term skills training, based on market demand, would be provided to rural and urban poor youth, males as well as females, aged 18-30 years. A market assessment/skills gap study and youth needs assessment study would be conducted in the six targeted Counties - Bor County, Ayod County, Gogrial West County, Tonj South County, Torit County and Kapoeta East County - and Juba City to identify the range of trades for the skills training. Since each County is different, the trades and skills training would be customized as per the local demand and market needs. This needs study would be conducted using the simple market assessment tool developed by ILO for South Sudan and tested by NGOs working on skills development in the country. This tool equips NGOs with the necessary techniques to determine the most relevant skills and trades for vocational and livelihoods programming in quick and cost effective manner.
32. The skills training would be provided by competent non-profit and private sector agencies. The curriculum would cover sector or trade specific skills, basic soft skills, life skills, financial literacy skills and entrepreneurial skills. At the end of the training period, Implementation Partners would provide support to beneficiaries to start or engage in income generating activities. Due to the unique context of South Sudan, not many skills training programs for youth have been implemented. Furthermore, there is limited knowledge of the local demand for specific trades and existing constraints to employability at the grassroots level. A strong emphasis would be put on the assessment of the beneficiary’s main constraints and needs to employability through beneficiary profiling and program customization. Therefore, the skills component would be treated as a pilot project and would be implemented in two Phases:
• During the first Phase, the skills component would be launched as a pilot to immediately provide training in two Counties and Juba city to benefit 600 youth. This Phase would also comprise building the capacity of the Ministries. Additionally, an operational and process review of the pilot would be conducted, and any required adjustment to the model and/or its basic parameters, as well as the institutional and implementation arrangements, would be undertaken.
• The second Phase would include the expansion of the program in the initial two counties and Juba city, and start operations in the remaining four counties to benefit a total of 2,900 youth.
33. During the first Phase, in order to develop the most adequate model of intervention that would increase the effectiveness of the skills training, a market assessment/skills gap study and youth needs assessment study would be conducted in the target counties and Juba city. In addition, a process review of the pilot program would be conducted to detect areas in which adjustments in design and operations may be required. A key aspect to be reviewed during the first Phase is the targeting mechanism used to select the poor youths. This Phase would help
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identify and test other variables and adjust the mechanism to ensure that only the needy youth are registered in the skills training program.
34. In the case of South Sudan, there is an urgent need to start training youth immediately. Therefore, fast tracking of the process for selecting IPs for Phase 1 is essential. It is recommended that one or two IPs with sound track record and experience in skills training in South Sudan could be selected quickly so that implementation of Phase 1 could be started immediately with a small target group of beneficiaries.
35. The first round of training courses would be expected to reach approximately 600 beneficiaries across two Counties and Juba City over a period of one year at a unit cost of roughly US$500 per beneficiary. A stipend equivalent to US$50 per beneficiary would be financed under this Phase. Additional funds, up to US$250, would be made available to eligible candidates for starting of a micro-enterprise. In particular, Phase 1 would provide support for the following activities:
• Start training of 600 youth in two Counties and Juba City; • Conduct a youth needs assessment and market assessment in six project target
Counties and Juba city; • Conduct a review of the process of Phase 1 to identify areas in which any adjustments
in design and operations are required. Based on these reviews, the design and operations for Phase 2 of pilot would be developed
• Revise the operations manual based on lessons learned from the implementation of Phase 1 as well as the market assessment survey;
• Develop Expression of Interest (EoI) and a Request for Proposal (RFP) for selection of implementation partners for the remaining 2,900 youth; and
• Develop an online real time MIS for monitoring;
36. Building on Phase 1 of the skills development component, Phase 2 would expand the skills development operations to an additional four targeted Counties, training and 2,900 poor youth. The key stakeholders would include – i) Ministries of Agriculture and Labor; ii) State and County Governments; iii) Communities; and iv) Implementation Partners;
37. Phase 2 of this component would include the following features: (i) sectors, trades and training courses would be market demand-driven based on a market assessment study conducted in six Counties and Juba city during Phase 1; and (ii) training providers, selected through a competitive process, would design and carry out courses and skills training targeted to poor youth.
38. The targeting mechanism revised during Phase 1 would be used to select the beneficiaries in Phase 2. The IPs would use social mobilization strategies to mobilize youth in rural and urban areas. All potential beneficiaries would be registered onto a beneficiary registry, which would be part of the MIS. This beneficiary registry would have particulars of personal details, educational qualifications, skill levels, the sectors in which the candidates are interested in, and whether they are willing to travel beyond their Boma or State in order to secure a job or starting their micro-enterprise.
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B. Project Financing
Lending Instrument 39. The lending instrument is an Investment Project Financing (IPF) with operational life of four (4) years. The credit would be provided on standard IDA terms with a repayment period of 40 years, including a 10-year grace period. The use of International Development Association (IDA) resources is consistent with the 2011- 2013 SSDP, which aims to work progressively to reduce risk, vulnerability, poverty, and economic and social exclusion throughout South Sudan.
Project Cost and Financing
40. The project would be financed by an IDA credit of US$21 million. Component estimated costs are presented in the table below.
Project Components Project
cost (US$ m)
IDA Financing
% Financing
1. Social Protection System and Project Management 1a Support to Social Protection System 1b Capacity Building and Project Management
5.50 0.90 4.60
5.50 0.90 4.60
100 100 100
2. Public Works 11.00 11.00 100
3. Skills Development 3.50 3.50 100
Total baseline costs Unallocated
20.00 1.00
20.00 1.00
100 100
Total 21.00 21.00
C. Lessons Learned and Reflected in the Project Design
41. Need for a Social Protection System: The Social Safety Nets diagnostics conducted by the World Bank indicates that the social safety net programs are dominated by humanitarian assistance and are limited in coverage, fragmented and poorly coordinated. This state of affairs suggests the need for establishing a robust social protection system that is underpinned by a Social Protection Policy, operational tools and governance mechanism. Government-led coordination with a long-term commitment to capacity development and establishment of sound basic administrative systems for a social protection program is critical.
42. Technical Support Team: Experience from the stand-alone Project Implementation Unit (PIU) under SSRFCRP shows that this arrangement had two main shortcomings, namely that (a) the PIU operated as an independent entity isolated from the government system, wherein project management tools never got mainstreamed into regular government systems; and (b) frequent turnover and inadequate assignment of government staff led to consultants managing the project. To overcome these shortcomings a TST is being proposed within the Implementing Ministry composed of consultants who are twinned with government assigned staff and are provided with clearly defined TORs for knowledge transfer of skills and management responsibilities.
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43. NGOs as Implementing Partners: Contracting of NGO partners for facilitation is proposed for field level implementation. This approach is based on the successful experience under the AGI and the South Sudan Emergency Food Crisis Response Project (SSEFCRP), where Government-led coordination of NGO implemented projects had positive results.
44. Community-based Targeting: In light of poverty data paucity and administrative capacity deficits below the county level, an inclusive and transparent community-based beneficiary targeting would be key to implementation. Therefore, sensitive facilitation of community mobilization and identification of beneficiaries and prioritization of social and economic infrastructure for rehabilitation would contribute to mitigating conflict, preventing exclusion and strengthening the social fabric at the Boma and Payam levels.
45. Comprehensive Skills Development: Experience around the world has shown that technical training for the poor alone is not enough and needs to be complimented with both life and entrepreneurial skills. The AGI experience points towards the necessity for providing start-up grants along with skills development to poor youth and women in South Sudan where the private sector is nascent, employment opportunities are limited, and the financial sector is rudimentary the poor having no access to institutional funds from Banks or Micro Finance Agencies.
46. Functional MIS and M&E systems: Data management is a key problem in most existing interventions on the welfare of the population in South Sudan and makes it nearly impossible to track their impact. In other countries, the availability of robust MIS and M&E systems has made it possible to track and report on the impact of projects, such as Bolsa Familia in Brazil. In order to track implementation progress and impact of interventions; and tackle error, fraud and corruption risks at different levels of implementation and administration, the establishment of functional and effective MIS and M&E systems in South Sudan would be essential. Therefore, as part of Component 1, SNSDP will support the development of such functional and effective systems to ensure that the progress of the operation can be monitored and its impact evaluated.
47. Local Governance and Service Delivery Project experience: The proposed project builds on the preparatory work and the design principles of the LGSD which was approved by the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors on March 28, 2013. The two projects are expected to be mutually reinforcing and informed by each other’s implementation experience. The shared design principles reflect attention to: (i) Communication and information dissemination; (ii) Community mobilization; (iii) Local Government Institutions (LGIs) involvement; (iv) the local planning process; (v) Community engagement; (vi) a feedback and grievance redress mechanism; and (vii) NGO-GO partnership.
IV. IMPLEMENTATION
A. Institutional and Implementation Arrangements
48. The overall project implementation would be done by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Cooperatives, and Rural Development. The Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare, would coordinate the social protection policy development (Component 1), MoAFCRD
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would lead the coordination of the Public Works (Component 2), while Ministry of Labor, Public Service and Human Resource Development (MoLPSHRD) would support the skills development (Component 3). At the national level, a Project Steering Committee6 (PSC) chaired by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MoFEP) would provide overall guidance. The project implementation process would be facilitated by Implementing Partners (IPs – competitively contracted NGOs) using a conflict sensitive social mobilization process field tested by the World Bank funded Local Governance and Service Delivery program. The proposed project would ensure close collaboration with the National Social Protection Working Group7 which is currently heading the process of the Social Protection Policy development in South Sudan. The MoAFCRD would have overall fiduciary and project management responsibilities and in order to discharge these responsibilities, it would establish a Technical Support Team (TST) at the national level, staffed with consultants as well as government-assigned personnel. Key TST positions would include a Project Manager, Skills/Livelihoods Specialist, Financial Management Specialist, Procurement Specialist, M&E Specialist, and Safeguards Specialist. State TST coordinators and government staff of State MoAFCRD, and County TST coordinators with government staff of Department of AFCRD, would support field-level implementation.
49. Project implementation during the first year would focus on Component 1, which produces the prerequisites for Components 2 and 3. As soon as the necessary tools have been put in place by Component 1, especially the targeting and beneficiary selection processes, components 2 and 3 would begin implementation. Given the government’s limited institutional capacity, components 2 and 3 would be implemented by Implementing Partners (NGOs or similar agencies) selected through a competitive process. The selected Implementing Partner NGOs would sign contractual agreements with and report to the MoAFCRD. The IP would implement the project in the selected project areas under the overall supervision of the MoAFCRD entities at federal, state and county levels. While the MoAFCRD would be the lead agency, the MoLPSHRD would also provide support particularly in supervision and monitoring of implementation of skills development activities. At the grassroots level, the planning and day-to-day implementation activities would be monitored in a participatory manner by the local government and community stakeholders, including county, Payam and Boma level government staff where available, the PDCs, BDCs and community at large.
50. The MoAFCRD will work closely with the MoGCSW and MoLPSHRD on the monitoring and coordination of the social protection policy development and the skills development component, respectively. In order to better coordinate the technical inputs of the various components, Core Government Teams would be established in the MoGCSW, for the
6 The core members of the Steering Committee would be the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MoFEP, Chair), Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare - MoGCSW (Co-chair), Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Cooperatives and Rural Development –MoAFCRD- (co-chair), Ministry of Labor, Public Service & Human Resources Development -MoLPSHRD (member), Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports - MoCYS (Member), Ministry of Education (member), and the Local Government Board. 7 The National Social Protection Working Group would include Government representatives General Directors from Ministries of Finance, Local Government, Education, Health and the Commission of War Widows & Veterans, as well as one member of the National Parliament, and Donor representation from UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, and World Bank.
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Social Protection System, and in MoLPSHRD, for Skills Development.
B. Results Monitoring and Evaluation
51. The project would put in place Monitoring and Evaluation tools to monitor and measure the results of the proposed project. Outcomes would be measured through both qualitative and quantitative methods. The most important M&E tools or data sources are: (i) a Management Information System (MIS) to capture key beneficiary information, project inputs and outputs and track implementation, (ii) Independent Verification exercise on targeting; (iii) Independent Verification exercise on transfer mechanisms, (iv) Community Score Cards on accountability and satisfaction, and (v) project Evaluation. Data from all the sources will be triangulated and used as needed.
52. The evaluation at the end of the project would focus on both the outcomes of the project interventions on beneficiary households as well as the quality of the systems developed under the project. The evaluation would be conducted for both public works participants and skills training graduates in year four of the Project and would look at socio economic changes in beneficiary households. The detailed methodology for the evaluation would be defined during project implementation.
53. The project M&E would also encourage strong citizen engagement, particularly in the targeting of beneficiaries and planning of public works, in order to ensure transparency and accountability in program delivery at local levels. Notice boards where available, information boards, local meetings, churches and mosques, and the vernacular radio would be used for community-level information dissemination. A Community Scorecard exercise would be implemented to enable communities to provide formal feedback on overall project governance including the fairness of targeting and redress mechanism, timeliness, efficiency and accuracy of transfer mechanisms, PW planning, implementation and supervision process.
54. To guarantee timely and objective treatment of those who might have a grievance, a responsive appeals system would be introduced and included in the Project Operations Manual (POM). Appeals committees would be established at all targeted Boma and Payam levels. A transparency and accountability mechanism would be built into the project in which approved beneficiary list, allocated budget and key program information would be displayed in public places at the targeted Boma, Payam and County levels. Simplified templates and posters would be designed for the display of this information for the public (see Annex 8 and 9). The internet would be used to disseminate project related information for public access and review at the national and state level.
C. Sustainability 55. The proposed Project aims to initiate a transition to a more sustainable, developmental approach to social protection in South Sudan. Safety net programming has, to date, largely been done through short-term humanitarian and emergency financing. Projects typically are only funded one year at a time and this short-term time horizon minimizes the potential impact of such projects on poor and vulnerable households. The proposed Project design adopts a longer-term time horizon of the social safety net and skills development activities that reflects
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international evidence about the importance of regular and predictable social protection interventions targeted at the same households.
56. The Project design focuses on sustainability at both the programmatic and policy levels. At the programmatic level, the proposed Project is expected to have a sustained productive impact on poor and vulnerable communities and households as well as to build Government capacity to implement similar activities over the longer-term. The Project contains specific measures to increase human capital and productivity with the aim of enabling households to increase their savings and productive activities. The sustainability of Project impacts within beneficiary communities is encouraged through the productive nature of the assets envisioned under the public works component. Furthermore, the transparent and participatory process of Public Works activity selection and implementation is designed to engender community ownership to the infrastructure created and its maintenance. Sustainability of the Government’s capacity to implement similar activities beyond the proposed Project would be addressed through regular interaction and skills transfer between local and/or international consultants and their Government counterparts in the TST. Ensuring the involvement of civil servants in the SNSDP implementing departments will foster sustainable capacity building within the coordinating government ministries.
57. At the policy level, the Project is integrated into the Government’s ongoing efforts at developing a National Social Protection Policy and would serve as part of a larger, longer-term joint social protection initiative supported by the Government and donor partners. The establishment of a PSC would serve to both expand the number and build the capacity of Government stakeholders actively participating in the already established National Social Protection Working Group. Through coordination with the Working Group, the proposed Project also is well-aligned with other donor interventions to complement existing interventions towards building a social protection system in South Sudan. Furthermore, the financial analyses show that South Sudan’s large fiscal space from oil revenues makes the proposed interventions financially sustainable beyond the project period. At the current scope and scale of the proposed project, the costs would only correspond to 0.34 percent of the 2011 government annual budget and 0.05 percent of 2011 GDP, which compares very favorably to similar programs in other countries.
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V. KEY RISKS AND MITIGATION MEASURES
A. Risk Ratings Summary Table
Stakeholder Risk Rating
Implementing Agency Risk High
1. Capacity High
2. Governance High
Project Risk Substantial
3. Design High
4. Social and Environmental Moderate
5. Program and Donor Low
6. Delivery Monitoring and Sustainability Substantial
Overall Implementation Risk High
B. Overall Risk Rating Explanation
58. The overall risk rating for the proposed Project is high. The general macro-economic and institutional environment in South Sudan exhibits the typical risks of a fragile and post conflict country. At the sector level, there are numerous high risks, including capacity and experience limitation, weak accountability and lack of clarity around functional assignments and responsibilities for social protection activities, which have the potential of affecting the implementation of the proposed Project. The prevailing socio-economic fragility in South Sudan and poor governance at all levels pose substantial risk to the success and sustainability of the proposed Project. However, the proposed project envisages mitigating measures in the form of capacity and systems building and would build on the successful experience of MoAFCRD and their partners, in implementing other programs. This would include partnership between Government and NGOs which have presence on the ground and capacity to implement the planned project activities.
VI. APPRAISAL SUMMARY
A. Economic and Financial Analyses
59. The economic and financial analyses of the public works and skills building components have been conducted and are available in full detail in Annex 7. In summary, the findings of the analyses shows that the public works component is an economically sound intervention in the South Sudanese context and is designed in a way that is cost effective and has positive impact on poverty and consumption. The public works component is expected to reach 26,300 households and 173,580 individuals with transfers equivalent to US$3 per household for 30 days per year in rural areas and 40 days per year in urban areas. The component appears to be relatively cost effective when compared to other programs, with benefit-cost ratios of 0.48, implying a US$2.07 to transfer US$1.00 in wage benefits to the intended recipients. Micro-simulations of the impact of the wage transfer show an average increase in annual per capita consumption of
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approximately 6-8 percent in the target group and a fall in the poverty headcount ratio between 1-4 percent in the project areas. These results do not take into account multiplier effects, which are likely to further strengthen the overall impact. Moreover, these simulations do not take into account the seasonality of the program. As the identification of the public works activities is demand driven and to be prioritized by communities during implementation, the type and value of the infrastructure built/rehabilitated and their economic analysis has not been attempted.
60. The skills development component is an intervention with potentially high returns and appears economically rational to prioritize when assisting the poor in South Sudan. The low level of skills is a major barrier to employment and productivity in the country and the main differing characteristic between rich and poor. While we do not have precise estimates of the economic returns to skills that the program would provide training for, they are likely to be large due to the general lack of skills in the country. We can illustrate potential economic returns from the skills component by looking at the Adolescent Girls Initiative (AGI). After receiving training, 86 percent of the AGI livelihood beneficiaries were involved in income generating activities. Moreover, the project estimated high returns to initial grants given to micro-entrepreneurs. The relative cost effectiveness of the skills component is comparable to that of the AGI project with fairly similar activities.
B. Technical
61. The proposed Project design and field-level implementation arrangements are based on South Sudan’s own experience and international best practices. The social protection analytical work, policy dialogue with the Government, and the experiences of the AGI and SSEFCRP has informed the technical design of the SNSDP. There is growing evidence that labor intensive public works, if designed and implemented well, generally have positive welfare outcomes and can serve as an effective safety net for vulnerable groups. The proposed Project has taken into account the lessons learned from implementation of public works and skills training activities by various actors in South Sudan and from international best practices. In addition (a) the proposed Project’s technical base would be further strengthened through the involvement of a number of NGOs, UN and private sector organizations which are already engaged in implementing similar projects; and (b) the operational capacity of the three lead government ministries - MoAFCRD, MoGCSW and MoLPSHRD, would be enhanced through the employment of the TST with expertise in the areas of procurement, financial management, M&E, safeguards management, livelihoods and technical supervision.
C. Financial Management
62. There are capacity challenges that are likely to affect the proposed Project, including lack of key financial management competencies and internal controls at the ministry level to manage the proposed Project. In order to mitigate this risk, financial management for the proposed Project would be supported by the financial management consultant who would be included in the TST. The POM and Public Financial Management (PFM) Manual would be developed and include the relevant accounting procedures.
63. The financial management risk for the proposed Project is assessed as Substantial. An action plan to address the weaknesses that have been identified and to ensure the FM system is
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robust and strengthened has been prepared. Some of these activities and actions are to be completed prior to credit effectiveness and these would be monitored on an on-going basis during implementation. The details of the action plan are presented in Annex 3.
D. Procurement
64. Procurement for the proposed Project would be carried out in accordance with the World Bank’s “Guidelines: Procurement of Goods, Works and Non Consulting Services under IBRD Loans and IDA Credits and Grants by World Bank Borrowers” dated January 2011, “Guidelines: Selection and Employment of Consultants under IBRD Loans and IDA Credits and Grants by World Bank Borrowers” dated January 2011 and the “Guidelines on Preventing and Combating Fraud and Corruption in Projects Financed by IBRD Loans and IDA Credits and Grants”, dated October 15, 2006 and revised in January 2011. National Competitive Bidding (NCB) shall be in accordance with procedures acceptable to the Bank. In line with the ISN, procurement under the proposed Project would operate under OP/BP 10.00 on Projects in Situations of Urgent Need of Assistance or Capacity Constraints and would therefore benefit from the flexibility on procurement methods and applicable thresholds among others.
65. The World Bank team undertook a procurement assessment of the MoAFCRD. Though the ministry has gained some experience in procurement in the course of implementation of projects funded by the Multi-Donor Trust Fund for South Sudan (MDTF-SS) and the World Bank over the past couple of years, it lacks capacity to conduct procurement independently. Thus, procurement under MoAFCRD would be conducted with the support of the TST which would include contracted individuals with technical and fiduciary skills necessary for managing project implementation. However, it is being emphasized that counterpart procurement staff needs to be associated so that further capacity is built up in the ministry in the field of procurement.
66. World Bank procurement experience in South Sudan has shown that: (a) significant delays are experienced in procurement processing, with a significant part of the time spent on preparation of tender specifications, Terms of References (TORs) and evaluation; (b) market for goods is nascent, cost of goods and services is high; and (c) there is a six month window of opportunity during the dry season within which most of the country is accessible. These experiences are being factored into the design of procurement arrangements.
67. The overall procurement risk for the proposed Project is considered High. In order to mitigate the risks identified in the fiduciary assessment, an action plan was prepared during negotiations, in consultation with the client and included in Annex 3.
E. Social (including Safeguards)
68. War, trauma and displacement has impacted the South Sudanese society rendering a number of families food insecure and without necessary skills, opportunities and resources to engage in agricultural production, wage and self-employment, and/or other economic activities. The situation of youth, both men and women, in the country is especially precarious given the inadequate facilities for education and skills enhancement, and limited employment opportunities that could provide them with a stable present and a secure future. Women across all age-groups
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in South Sudan face dramatic disparities and bear a disproportionate burden of poverty, and domestic and productive roles. The proposed Project, therefore, specifically targets youth and women in the public works and skills development interventions.
69. The SNSDP would facilitate and strengthen the engagement of communities in the proper and sensitive targeting of vulnerable households that are at the greatest risk of food insecurity and hunger. The mobilization process would address existing social cleavages and the underlying conflict flashpoints in the community, through a vulnerability-based and conflict sensitive approach that would underpin the planning and decision making at community level. Furthermore, communities would participate in the planning, implementation and oversight of social and economic infrastructure to be created as part of the Public Works. Effective communication would underpin the community engagement process and would be done through local meetings, information boards, churches and mosques, traditional chiefs and vernacular radio. Clearly defined and communicated project processes, roles and responsibilities, transparency and accountability arrangements, including an accessible and responsive grievance redress mechanism, would support smooth project implementation.
70. OP/BP 4.10 on Indigenous Peoples is triggered and is applicable to the SNSDP, as analysis by World Bank and other experts confirms that the overwhelming majority of people in the project area are expected to meet the requirements of OP 4.10. The approach and implementation process of the proposed Project embeds the basic principles of OP 4.10 of a free, prior, and informed consultation leading to broad community support for the proposed Project through its emphasis on community-driven approach for beneficiary identification and public works prioritization ensuring equitable benefits; and an accessible feedback and grievance redress mechanism for beneficiaries and communities. Any activity requiring land acquisition under eminent domain, which would trigger OP 4.12 on Involuntary Settlement, would be on a ‘negative list’ for implementation and the elements of an Indigenous Peoples Plan (IPP) would be included in the overall project design; a separate IPP is not required. Land for construction/rehabilitation of infrastructure under the Public Works Component in the rural areas would be obtained either: (a) through documented voluntary community donations based on consultation; or (b) government land without encroachments, squatters or other encumbrances.
71. Given the participatory approach to the selection of activities and their small-scale nature, there would be no large scale, significant and irreversible adverse impacts. However, there is the potential for the PW interventions to generate negative environmental and social impacts. The national ESSAF prepared for South Sudan and discussed by the Board on March 28, 2013 is applicable to the proposed Project. Based on the National ESSAF, SNSDP would prepare Environment and Social Management Plans (ESMPs) for portfolio of projects to guide implementation.
F. Environment (including Safeguards)
72. The envisaged interventions of the proposed Project would likely generate potential positive benefits for local communities in and around the project area, particularly for youth and women, through creating employment opportunities and generating income to support their livelihoods. Activities under the Public Works component would respond to the urgent economic infrastructure needs of the communities that would offer them opportunities for wage incomes
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and contribute to improve their living standards. The anticipated public works activities expected to engage in the construction/rehabilitation of different activities in the area of Urban Works, Soil and water conservation and land productivity, and Rural Social infrastructure (see table 2). These activities would generate both positive and negative environmental and social impacts.
73. Due to the small-scale nature of Public Work investments, the potential negative environmental and social impacts of the proposed Project are expected to be localized, temporary, and easily mitigated through sensible construction management techniques, and diligent management practices. The proposed Project would not take place in or near natural habitats. Any activity that would affect natural habitats and forests would not be financed and automatically excluded from investment.
74. Given the nature and limited scale of the proposed Project, the environmental assessment category for this project is assigned to be category B-partial assessment. World Bank safeguard policies triggered are Environmental Assessment (OP/BP 4.01), Pest Management (OP 4.09), Physical Cultural Resources (OP/BP 4.11), Indigenous Peoples (OP/BP 4.10), and International Waterways (OP/BP 7.50). In order to avoid and/or minimize the anticipated potential social and environmental impacts, the national Environmental and Social Screening and Assessment Framework (ESSAF) prepared for South Sudan, is applicable and used as an instrument to the proposed project. Annex 6 provides details on the ESSAF and its guidance for the proposed Project.
75. Both the Public Works and Skills Development activities expected to lead to livelihood improvement that could ultimately result in the increased use of chemicals and fertilizers, and subsequent environmental and health risks. In order to offset or minimize the anticipated impacts, based on the national ESSAF, the project would prepare an Integrated Pest Management Plan (IPMP) and ESMPs would be prepared for portfolio of projects to manage and avoid the potential negative impacts resulted from the implementation of sub project activities.
76. The ESSAF provides clear guidelines and procedures for identification, protection, and treatment of cultural resources and grave yards discovered. The “chance find” procedure indicated in the ESSAF would be used as an instrument to minimize the anticipated potential impacts on physical cultural resources and graveyards. This would be considered in activity design and included with the environmental and social safeguards provisions in the public works operational guidelines documents. Also, the appropriate management of discovered artifacts would be included in environmental safeguards instruments and standards and guideline documents for public works activities.
77. The proposed activities related to water sector activities are mostly limited to the rehabilitation and improvement of the existing water delivery schemes and structures and are likely to have potential impacts on the nearby surface and ground water sources and particularly on Nile water sources. Hand dug wells to be constructed under the project would be shallow in depth, and the amount of water to be extracted would be negligible. Considering the scale and nature of the proposed activities, the level of impacts, and the possible connection of the abstraction of groundwater by the project with the Nile or part of the Upper Nile Basin, the World Bank policy OP/BP 7.50 (Projects on International Waterways) is triggered. As a general rule, OP 7.50 requires that the other Nile riparian countries be notified of the proposed Project.
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In this case, however, the proposed activities would be limited to the improvement or rehabilitation of existing water delivery schemes. The SNSDP team would therefore seek guidance and approval for exception to riparian notification from the Africa Vice President.
78. The existing capacity of the government and partners to implement and manage the environmental and social safeguards instruments (ESSAF, IPMP and ESMP) is very limited. Therefore, in order to strengthen the capacity of the relevant government institutions - and Implementing Partners and other stakeholders on implementing the safeguard instruments, measures would be built in to raise awareness and capacity building on safeguards management. The program would include assistance to identify the staffing and capacity building needs. The procedural and oversight framework at implementation levels would be included also to manage the application of standards for environmental and social safeguards appropriate to limited safeguards risks posed by the small-scale sub-projects financed under the project. The recruitment of a full-time Environmental and Social Safeguards Officer in the TST under the MoAFCRD will be requested. GOSS would also assign Safeguards Focal Points for each participating state and county for environmental and social safeguards management under the project, to provide technical support to the county, payam and boma levels and to regularly follow up and monitor the implementation of activities to guarantee compliance with the ESSAF, ESMPs and other safeguards instruments.
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Annex 1: Results Framework and Monitoring
SOUTH SUDAN: Safety Net and Skills Development Project
Project Development Objectives
PDO Statement
Provide access to income opportunities and temporary employment to the poor and vulnerable and put in place building blocks for a social protection system.
These results are at Project Level
Project Development Objective Indicators
Cumulative Target Values Data Source/ Responsibility for
Indicator Name Core Unit of Measure
Baseline YR1 YR2 YR3 YR4 End Target Frequency Methodology Data Collection
Direct project beneficiaries (households)
Number 0.00 0.00 22,500 24,000 25,000 25,000 Bi-annual
Project MIS, quarterly and annual, reports
Implementing NGOs, TST and core project teams in each ministry.
Female beneficiaries
Percentage Sub-Type Supplemental
0.00 0.00 30.00 30.00 30.00 30.00
Social Protection Policy developed and submitted for discussion
Text 0
First draft of SP policy prepared
Consultations and adjustments to SP policy are made
SP policy submitted for discussion
SP policy submitted for discussion
SP policy submitted for discussion
Once SP policy document
Government of South Sudan with Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and Ministry of Gender, Child, and Social Welfare as lead agencies
Beneficiaries of public works complying with eligibility criteria
Percentage 0.00 0.00 80.00 85.00 85.00 85.00 Yearly verification exercise
consultants
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Targeting mechanism to select poor youth for skills development training designed, tested and finalized/revised
Text Targeting mechanism designed
Targeting mechanism designed and implemented
Targeting mechanism evaluated
Targeting mechanism finalized/ revised
Targeting mechanism finalized/ revised
Once
Guidelines for identification and selection of beneficiaries
IPs and TSTs
Intermediate Results Indicators
Cumulative Target Values Data Source/ Responsibility for
Indicator Name Core Unit of Measure
Baseline YR1 YR2 YR3 YR4 End Target Frequency Methodology Data Collection
Beneficiaries of Safety Nets programs (number)
Number 0.00 0.00 21,500 21,500 21,500 21,500 Bi-annual
Project (MIS), quarterly and annual, reports
Implementing NGOs, TST and core project teams in each ministry
Beneficiaries of Safety Nets programs - Female (number)
Number Sub-Type Breakdown
0.00 0.00 6,450 6,450 6,450 6,450 Bi-annual
Project (MIS), quarterly and annual reports
Implementing NGOs, TST ad core project teams in each ministry
Beneficiaries of Safety Nets programs - Cash-for-work, food-for-work and public works (number)
Number Sub-Type Breakdown
0.00 0.00 21,500 21,500 21,500 21,500 Bi-annual
Project (MIS), quarterly and annual reports
Implementing NGOs, TST and core project teams in each ministry
Number of work days created
Number 0.00 0.00 730,000 1,460,000 2,190,000 2,190,000 Bi-annual
Project (MIS), quarterly and annual, reports
Implementing NGOS, TST and core project teams in each ministry
Number of public works projects
Text 0 0 TBD TBD TBD TBD Bi-annual Project (MIS)
Implementing NGOs, TST and
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administrative monitoring data
core project teams in each ministry
Beneficiary satisfaction with program
Percentage 0.00 0.00 0.00 80.00 80.00 80.00 Year 3 Community scorecard
consultant
MIS systems for public works and skills training developed and functional
Text 0
MIS systems developed
MIS systems fully functional
MIS systems fully functional
MIS systems fully functional
MIS systems fully functional
Bi-annual Bank supervision
Cash transfers to beneficiaries made on time
Percentage 0.00 0.00 70.00 80.00 80.00 80.00 Yearly Verification exercise
Consultants
Percentage of selected Bomas that post list of approved beneficiaries in public places
Percentage 0.00 0.00 75.00 90.00 90.00 90.00 Yearly Verification exercise
Consultants
Number of persons who complete the skills training program (disaggregated by youth and women)
Number 0.00 0.00 600 2,000 3,500 3,500 Bi-annual
Project (MIS), quarterly and annual, reports
Implementing NGOs, TST and core project teams in each ministry
Number of evaluation and studies conducted on skills development
Number 0.00 2 1 0 3
First and Second Year
Market survey and process evaluation
TST and Implementing Partners
.
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.
Project Development Objective Indicators
Indicator Name Description (indicator definition etc.)
Direct project beneficiaries Direct beneficiaries are people or groups who directly derive benefits from an intervention (i.e., children who benefit from an immunization program; families that have a new piped water connection). Please note that this indicator requires supplemental information. Supplemental Value: Female beneficiaries (percentage). Based on the assessment and definition of direct project beneficiaries, specify what proportion of the direct project beneficiaries are female. This indicator is calculated as a percentage.
Female beneficiaries Based on the assessment and definition of direct project beneficiaries, specify what percentage of the beneficiaries are female.
Social Protection Policy developed and submitted for discussion
Social Protection Policy document developed and submitted for discussion
Beneficiaries of public works complying with eligibility criteria
Annual verification exercise will be done by independent consultants to measure the accuracy of the targeting mechanism for the public works beneficiaries
Targeting mechanism to select poor youth for skills development training designed, tested and finalized/revised
A method to identify poor youth that would benefit from the skills development component
.
Intermediate Results Indicators
Indicator Name Description (indicator definition etc.)
Beneficiaries of Safety Nets programs (number) This indicator measures the number of individual beneficiaries covered by safety nets programs supported by the Bank. Safety nets programs intend to provide social assistance (kind or cash) to poor and vulnerable individuals or families, including those to help cope with consequences of economic or other shock.
Beneficiaries of Safety Nets programs - Female (number) This indicator measures female participation in SSN programs. It has the same definition as the "Beneficiaries of Safety Nets programs" but applies only to female. This indicator will yield a measure of coverage of SSN projects disaggregated by gender (in absolute numbers)
Beneficiaries of Safety Nets programs - Cash-for-work, food-for-work and public works (number)
Follows the safety nets programs’ classification used in SP Atlas.
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Number of work days created Total number of days that beneficiaries work on public works activities. One beneficiary would work 30 days per year.
Number of public works projects The type of public works activities that would be selected by the community would not be known at this time. The disaggregated list would be provided in the ISR.
Beneficiary satisfaction with program Through a participatory Community Scorecard beneficiaries would provide formal feedback on the quality of service received including the fairness of targeting and redress mechanism, timeliness, efficiency and accuracy of transfer mechanisms, PW planning, implementation and supervision process etc.
MIS systems for public works and skills training developed and functional
In the second year of the project implementation MIS system would be developed and would be used to register beneficiaries and capture baseline data.
Cash transfers to beneficiaries made on time Annual verification exercise would be done by independent consultants to check the timeliness of the payment mechanism.
Percentage of selected Bomas that post list of approved beneficiaries in public places
Percentage of selected Bomas that post list of approved beneficiaries in public places
Number of persons who complete the skills training program (disaggregated by youth and women)
Number of beneficiaries who complete the skills training
Number of evaluation and studies conducted on skills development
Three evaluation/studies conducted, including process review, youth needs assessment survey and market demand assessment will be conducted.
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Annex 2: Detailed Project Description
SOUTH SUDAN: Safety Net and Skills Development Project 1. The SNSDP has dual objectives. On one hand it aims to support the most vulnerable households through predictable safety net transfers, skills development and livelihood support in the short to medium term. On the other hand, the proposed project also has an overarching important longer-term objective of gradually strengthening the local implementation capacity and development of a national system for effective implementation of SP programs. Therefore, the effectiveness of the proposed project would be measured based on the achievement of both objectives. It is important to balance both the short term and longer term aim and carefully determine its coverage. Therefore, the design elements of the proposed project, including targeting and coverage, are based on the following principles and criteria.
Key guiding principles
a) Ensure minimum basic implementation capacity and system: Evidence and experience from other countries with similar socio economic characteristics show that it is a pre-requisite to have or put in place a minimum implementation capacity to ensure that transfers are managed and delivered to the beneficiaries in an accountable manner. Currently, the government capacity at all levels (National, State, County, Payam) is limited to oversee and coordinate development activities on the ground. Moreover, capacity and presence of implementing agencies including NGOs, CBO and Private sector, is also limited. They are mainly concentrated in relatively accessible areas, and their capacity can only be scaled up to a limited extent. Therefore, it is necessary to put in place:
o Monitoring and evaluation system; o Functioning financial management and procurement system; o Robust accountability mechanism to make sure that benefits reach the
beneficiaries timely and appropriately; and o Human and logistical capacity.
b) Highly decentralized service delivery: SN/SP program delivery is highly decentralized and requires direct interaction with the individual target groups. This requires strong and effective planning, implementation and monitoring at County, Payam and Boma levels.
c) Avoiding overlapping and use of different systems (wage rate, duration and level of transfer for the same area). It is important, as much as possible, to have a harmonized system in a given locality. So the project should not be implemented in locations where other programs/agencies use different systems for similar interventions. If possible the government should aim to harmonize this in the medium and long term.
d) Phased approach: While the magnitude of need is very high compared to the available resources and limited implementation capacity, it is important to start with the project within manageable coverage. Depending on the lessons and demonstrated future impact of the project, it is likely that possibilities would emerge to expand the current Phase or design other future Phases. Therefore, it is recommended to start this program small but implement it effectively.
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e) Focus on effectiveness and efficiency to better inform future scale up: This Phase of the project is a small and does not have the funding to ensure wider scale up at this stage. However, through effective implementation and demonstration of success and impact, it is possible to attract more resources for future scale up. For example, it is preferable to implement PWs and Skill development activities where it is needed most and opportunities and accessibility exist for employment.
Selection Criteria
a) Geographic focus: In the short term, such a new project should focus on few geographic areas with higher levels of poverty, close proximity to each other and have relatively better accessibility and security to ensure a year round project cycle activities. Gradually and as the capacity is built, the program would be able to roll-out to other areas.
b) Presence of other complementary programs: The impact of a safety net program is higher when complemented with other household level livelihood interventions. Therefore, it is recommended to implement this program in places where there is a possibility to link with other complementary programs.
c) Cost effectiveness: The objective of the project is to make sure that a significant portion of the project resources go to the beneficiaries. Therefore, administrative and management costs should be minimized as much as possible and geographic targeting should take this into account.
2. Coverage and phasing: The project would be implemented in three states covering one urban center and one rural county in each and Juba city in the fourth state. These include Bor and Ayod Counties in Jonglei state, Gogrial West and Tonj South Counties in Warrap state, Torit and Kapoeta East Counties in Western Equatoria state, and Juba in Central Equatoria state. The project locations were selected through a consultative process with Government, at both national and state levels, and other key stakeholders. The Payams and Bomas will be selected during implementation based on agreed criteria, outlined in the Project Operations Manual (POM).
Component 1 –Social Protection System and Project Management – US$5.5 million
3. Under this component, the proposed project aims to contribute to two important aspects of institutional strengthening objectives. First, it would provide support to the GOSS in the medium to long term development of a national system for social protection, implementation and coordination. Second, it would have a specific focus on project related short term institutional arrangements, project management and capacity building interventions. This component would have two sub-components - sub-component 1a - Support to Social Protection System and sub-component 1b - Capacity Building and Project Management.
4. Sub-Component 1a – Support to Social Protection System: The Government is currently developing a National Social Protection Policy and envisages completing it in 2014. The National Social Protection Policy is intended to outline the Government’s strategy for Social Protection towards achieving the SSDP’s emphasis on the importance of social protection under its Social and Human Development Pillar to work progressively to reduce risk, vulnerability, poverty, and economic and social exclusion throughout South Sudan.
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5. This subcomponent would support GOSS to put in place the building blocks of an SP system through supporting the drafting of a social protection policy and putting in place a set of basic operational tools to ensure that: (i) safety net programs reach the poorest and most vulnerable; (ii) the Government has the adequate mechanism to gather information and monitor progress; and (iii) there is a formal system to transfer benefits in a secure, timely, and predictable manner. This subcomponent would also ensure close coordination with MoGCSW, while also building the capacity of the Project Steering Committee as a potential coordinating body for the implementation of the National Social Protection Policy across relevant stakeholders, including the MoFEP, MoGCSW, MoAFCRD, MoLPSHRD, MoCYS, MoE, implementing States, relevant Development Partners, and NGO representatives. The proposed project would contribute in this manner by financing the following activities:
• Workshops at national and state levels to ensure participation of stakeholders, including Civil Society Organizations and community leaders, politicians, NGOs, and Development Partners;
• South–South learning visits for key policy makers to countries with relevant SP experience so the South Sudanese could learn from them; and
• Consultancy and non-consultancy services for research and knowledge generation to inform the SP policy making.
6. This subcomponent would also finance activities that would help to develop operational tools for the Social Safety Net and the entry point for the Public Works and Skills Development components of SNSDP:
• A common targeting mechanism to identify potential beneficiaries for Component 1 (Public Works) and Component 2 (Skills Development). Based on the eligibility criteria, registered beneficiaries would be selected separately to participate in either the public works activities and or skills development programs to ensure greater equity. Table 4 in Annex 3 provides a brief, sequential presentation of the targeting and beneficiary selection process;
• A single registry of beneficiaries fully integrated to the management information system, which, along with the beneficiary identification mechanism, would inform all SP interventions in the country;
• Develop an integrated Management Information System (MIS) to track and monitor the progress made by programs at the beneficiary level.
• Integration into the MIS of a grievance management system to ensure that beneficiaries can exercise their rights and make complaints as needed;
• A formal payment system that would guarantee secure, predictable and timely payments to beneficiaries of their entitlements while minimizing administrative and transaction costs;
• Development of tools to assess program operations and inform necessary adjustments, including the following: (i) regular process evaluations to assess program operations from the identification of beneficiaries until conciliation of payments; (ii) regular targeting
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assessments to adjust the system to identify and register beneficiaries; (iii) beneficiary surveys, and community Score Cards on quality and satisfaction of services to receive feedback from program beneficiaries; and
• Design of a Communications strategy and plan and a communications campaign to be launched in order to inform federal, state, county and community level stakeholders about the project including its objectives, operational procedures and rules, and the rationale for the limited geographical scope and relatively small number of beneficiaries.
7. Sub-Component 1b - Capacity Building and Project Management: The MoAFCRD would serve as the lead Project Implementing Agency and would be responsible for the overall management and coordination of the proposed Project. The major implementation challenge it faces is weak capacity and limited implementation experience so this component would finance activities that would strengthen the project management and supervision capacity of MoAFCRD. During the first year of project implementation, key activities that would be implemented are:
• Establishing a TST at the federal, state and county levels. This subcomponent would systematically build MoAFCRD capacity at the Federal, State and County levels to carry out their assigned respective roles and responsibilities under the proposed project. The TST would be hosted in the MoAFCRD’s Department of Extension in order to strengthen the Ministry’s implementation capacity and would consist of, at a minimum, the following personnel and consultants: i) Project Manager, (ii) Financial Management Specialist, iii) Procurement Specialist, (iv) Safeguards Specialist, (v) M&E Specialist, and vi) Livelihoods/Skills Development Coordinator. The TST personnel/consultants would report to the Project Manager on a day-to-day basis, and s/he would in turn report to the Director of the Department of Extension in the MoAFCRD. For the successful implementation of SNSDP, local implementation capacities would be developed by creating strong local counterpart teams to work alongside the TST. The proposed Project would also finance and make investments in building the capacity of the government staff, who would be assigned as counterparts to the TST, through training, and the mobilization of technical assistance, where needed. Regular fiduciary training would also be provided by the World Bank.
Component 2 – Public Works – US$11 million
8. This component would provide beneficiaries from poor households a seasonal transfer, linked to participation in public works, to increase and sustain household assets, and smooth consumption during lean seasons. The public works activities would finance a positive list of labor-intensive public works and, through these activities, provide temporary employment to target beneficiaries. Component 2 would specifically finance: (a) wages/transfers8 for the beneficiaries participating in the public works activities for 10 days/month for three months9 in a year in rural counties and four months in urban counties; (b) equipment, materials and skilled labor that would be necessary inputs to complete the selected public works with reasonable
8 at $US$3 per day per beneficiary 9 The three months would coincide with the peak hunger months, i.e. right before the agricultural season that ranges from December to April.
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quality10; and (c) the administrative cost of the IP NGOs. Given the emphasis on labor intensive works, the proposed Component would primarily finance wages for the participants which should not be less than 60 percent of the budget allocated to this component, while 10 percent would be allocated for equipment, materials and skilled labor, and 30 percent for administrative cost of the IP NGOs. The NGOs would ensure all aspects of implementation of this component following the guidance provided in the POM, including providing the fund transfers to the beneficiaries.
9. The Public Works Component would have a participatory and gender sensitive approach that would take into account the special needs of women. Appropriate implementation guidelines and work site arrangements would ensure that public works activities would be conducted in close proximity to villages in order to ensure that at least 30 percent of the participants would be women. Through their representation on the BDCs, women would also be fully involved in decision making, including in selection of public works activities.
Identification of PW activities
10. The public works component would build off the successes of the ongoing SSEFCRP11. It is expected to provide income for the poor and vulnerable families, both in rural and urban settings, through provision of temporary employment. The type of public works to be implemented in both settings would be different. As eligibility criteria, selected public works should: (a) be labor intensive, implemented with the use of simple hand tools as much as possible, with at least 60 percent of the cost of the selected public works being wages of the beneficiaries; (b) be demand driven and meet the infrastructure needs of the community; (c) be technically, socially and economically viable; (d) not have any significant negative social or environmental impacts; (e) not require land acquisition; (f) not have any impact on physical cultural resources; (g) enable participation of women; and (h) be sustainable and benefit the community.
11. The selection of beneficiaries for the PW component would be carried out through a two-step process including geographic identification of the poorest areas and community based targeting to reach the poorest and most vulnerable. To facilitate this process, the project would focus on a few geographic areas with higher levels of poverty, close proximity to each other and have relatively better accessibility and security to ensure a year round project cycle of activities. Gradually, and as capacity is built, the program would be able to roll out to other areas. The participatory Conflict and Social mapping process led by BDC with facilitation of IP would help communities to both identify beneficiary households and prioritize social and economic infrastructure to be created under the Public Works component at the Boma and/or Payam levels. The process would have the following key outcomes: (i) list of the poor and vulnerable
10 These may include hand tools that would be used by participants and material inputs such as cement, nails, corrugated iron sheets which some of the public work activities may require and skilled labour such as masons carpenters who would provide technical supervision and guidance to the public work participants. 11 The South Sudan Emergency Food Crisis Response Project is financed by World Bank grants totaling US$10.2 million from the Food Price Crisis Trust Fund and implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Cooperatives, and Rural Development (MoAFCRD) with NGO counterparts (Norwegian People's Aid, Action Africa Help International, World Vision, Acted, and Mercy Corps).
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households, (ii) list of community infrastructure needs and a priority list of social and economic infrastructure activities that are labor intensive for the proposed Project validated by the community and approved by PDC, and (iii) Boma level public work activity list that could complement activities of county/state governments, NGOs and other donor agencies active in the area. Table 1 provides details on the role of communities in the process.
Table 1: Role of Communities in the Public Works Program
Activities Details Outcomes Responsible Information dissemination
Boma meetings to introduce the public work activity
Communities aware of public work activity objectives, local development investment cycle and their roles.
IPs with County TST
BDC and PDC formation
Establishment and/or validation of membership Orientation of elected members and payam administrator
Inclusive process of BDC/PDC formation
IPs with County TST and Payam Administrator
Public Works assessment
Feasibility assessment of the proposed PW activities and their scope based on number of beneficiaries and labor days allocated for the boma.
List of feasible PW activities IPs in consultation with County TST
PWs design finalization and beneficiary assignment
Finalization of the PWs design including specific activities for women and labor constrained households under each of the activities, and assignment of beneficiaries to each of the activities
Final list of PWs along with beneficiaries assigned to each
IPs in consultation with County TST
Oversight of beneficiary participation
Community members and BDC members would monitor the attendance of beneficiaries on a daily and weekly basis respectively.
Beneficiaries participate on public work for 10 days of labor per month for three months in rural and four months in urban areas
Community Supervision Team (CST) and BDC
Work quality monitoring
The work quality would be monitored based on the design and implementation plan.
Adherence to finalized design and agreed quality parameters
IPs and BDC regularly County Core Team and TST periodically
Payment monitoring
Community and BDC members would ensure that beneficiaries are paid the agreed wage on agreed time and in accordance with number of days worked
Beneficiaries paid on a timely basis, in the prescribed amount with no rent seeking or leakage
CST and BDC
PW certification and transfer to community committees
County administration, PDC and BDC would be involved in certifying the completion of the PW, recording the infrastructure on the County account and transfer the infrastructure to a community committee
Completion certified PW recorded in County account and transferred to Community Committee
County Administration and PDC
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Type of Public Works
12. The public works activities would finance a positive list of labor intensive public works and, through these activities, provide temporary employment to target beneficiaries. Communities in consultation with the BDC would select the public works activities with preference given to works that promote local economic opportunity, such as movement of produce from farms to the market, improving productivity of land through flood control and increased surface irrigation, storage facilities to reduce post-harvest losses, collection and proper disposal of solid waste and cleaning of drainage channels, and environmental sanitation activities in urban areas. Based on the experience from the SSEFCRP and other similar projects implemented by development partners in South Sudan, the possible list of Public works are shown in Table 2.
Table 2: Indicative list of Public Works Activities
Areas of Work Activities* Rural Social infrastructure Rehabilitation/maintenance of:
• Feeder roads • School fence, classrooms • Simple storage facilities • Ponds and other types of water harvesting structures • Spring development/protection • Flood control dykes • Small scale irrigation schemes • Hand dug well
Soil and water conservation and land productivity
• Physical and biological SWC measures • Nursery site establishment and management • Afforestation • Area closure/ woodlots • Gully control • Compost making
Urban Works Rehabilitation/maintenance of: • Urban roads • Urban rainwater drainage structures • Cleaning Sewerage networks • Waste disposal pits • Garbage collection and disposal • School fence
*the actual activities to be prioritized by communities through a participatory and transparent process
Implementation of Public Works
13. NGOs contracted as Implementing Partners by the MoAFCRD would be responsible for the overall technical implementation and supervision of the public works activities. The IP NGO would, through its field office, coordinate implementation and provide facilitation support to the project locations. The roles and responsibilities of the NGOs would include (a) coordinate the participatory beneficiary and PW activities selection process; (b) develop beneficiary register using the project MIS that would be developed by the project and submit copies to county, state
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and federal level MoAFCRD; (c) based on consolidated final list of beneficiaries and public work activities, prepare, and submit for review and approval, annual work plan and budget including payment that would be transferred to beneficiaries, detailed costs associated with inputs for the public work activities (materials, tools skilled labor), own administrative cost as per agreed contract terms; (d) organize eligible beneficiaries into groups suitable for implementing the PW activities prioritized by the community and building capacities through guidance, training and a supported ‘learning-by-doing’ approach; (e) supervise the participation of the beneficiaries on the implementation of activities; (f) keep attendance sheets, based on the list from beneficiary registry, for beneficiaries participating on the PW activities; (g) transfer payment to beneficiaries as per the approved time sheet and agreed time frame; (h) prepare project progress report as per agreed format and frequency, and submit to relevant stakeholders. . In addition, a Public Works Beneficiary Registry and Verification Mechanism would ensure payments are made to eligible beneficiaries. This mechanism would capture the following data on beneficiaries: (i) name; (ii) age; (iii) gender; (iv) village / location; (v) number of days worked; (vi) wage; and (vii) verification of attendance. A document, based on a template included in the POM, would list the beneficiaries drawn from the registry who are selected to participate in the Public Works activities. These participating beneficiaries would collectively sign this document to indicate their agreement to participate in these activities on the terms and conditions indicated therein.
14. The Public Works intervention would involve year round activities with respect to community-level planning, public work activity prioritization and design finalization, though implementation and transfer seasons would be during the months of December to April which does not overlap with the peak agricultural season across most states. The program would not disrupt the seasonal farming activities of the project beneficiaries. During this season, the number of days and hours during which individuals would be involved in public works activities would be determined based on regular livelihood activities of the participants. Furthermore, this period is just before the normal food gap season when food prices usually escalate. Therefore, making transfers during the period January – April would ensure that beneficiaries buy food and store/reserves when the prices are relatively lower for the food gap months of May – August. The assessment of work done, certification of infrastructure, and transfer to community organizations would conclude the work cycle for one-year. At the Boma level the SNSDP follows a regular project management cycle that is common across the project and is repeated each year. Figure 1 provides the details of the PW project cycle.
15. The public works activity cycle would be initiated once the beneficiaries in a given Payam and its Bomas have been identified. In order to ensure a proper planning process for the community, the number of beneficiaries would be decided based on the resource envelope available for the specific county and communicated to the BDC and IP by August 1 each year. The validation/establishment of the BDC and PDC will precede the planning process and is a one-off activity. In this regard, the public works component of the SNSDP will follow an annual cycle which would start with Preparatory work, including the identification of the number of beneficiaries and budgets for County established by July 1 and the number of beneficiaries and budgets for Payams and Bomas established by Aug 1. The timing of the Boma level project cycle would follow a planning Phase (Jul-Aug), project preparation Phase (Sep-Nov), implementation Phase (Dec-Apr), and Monitoring and Evaluation Phase (Jan –May). All phases would include a number of activities which would be led by the BDC with the support of the IP
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and be guided by the standards and norms outlined in POM. Figure 1 provides more details on the activities included in the various phases.
16. The proposed Project would target households and provide resources to cover the needs of the household members. Ideally, the monthly wage rate should be lower than that of the market, in order not to distort the market-based wages. It should also be low enough to discourage those with access to alternative income earning opportunities. In South Sudan there is no reliable labor market data on wage rates. Currently, implementing agencies involved in various short term safety net transfer programs use different daily wage rates ranging from US$2 – US$12 per-household for an average of 30 days per year, with most paying the highest rate. Considering the overriding objective of the SNSDP, which is to introduce a sustainable system, high wage rates would not be viable.
Figure 1: Public Works Activity Cycle at Boma level
17. Therefore, the proposed Project would pay US$3 dollars per household for an average of 30 days per year in rural areas and 40 days in urban areas. This rate tends to be on the lower side of the mid-range of cash benefits for unskilled workers and, therefore, it is expected to comply with the requirements overall as specified in the previous paragraphs. Furthermore, the rate is also aligned with the current World Food Program interventions in South Sudan which provide a transfer of US$3.8 equivalent (cash and/or food) based on its assessment of household food
Planning (July-Aug) • Community awareness and mobilization • Conflict and Social Analysis • Identification of possible Public Works activities • Prioritized list of Public Works activities • Validation by community • Submission to PDC • Review and approval by PDC
Preparation (Sep-Nov) • Technical feasbility and design ofinalization for each activity • Quantification of tools, materials and skilled labor needed • Preparation of consolidated work plan, budget and work
schedule • Submission of plan to MOAFCRD for approval • Approval of the consolidated plan
Implementation (Dec-Apr)
• Release of funds • Procurement of tools, materials and skilled labor • Execution of public work activities • Muster roll maintenance and record for each beneficiary • Cash Transfer logisitics and payment • Financial management • Oversight
Monitoring & Evaluation (Jan-May) • Progress reporting • Financial reporting • Auditing • Evaluatio and Completion certification of activities • Transfer of O&M responsibility to community user
group
37
basket deficits. During the implementation of the proposed Project, the World Bank team would conduct further assessment of the current practice, the prevailing market price for food items, and local wage rates and if necessary, revise the rate accordingly.
18. Ensuring the timeliness of transfers is an important principle of any safety net program. If the transfers are delayed, there would be less predictability and the beneficiaries would be forced to sell their assets to meet basic needs. This would have a negative impact on the effort to move the beneficiary households towards improved livelihood trajectories. Therefore, a reliable transfer mechanism should be developed before the start of the program. It is also important to ensure predictability by maintaining the same household in the program for a reasonable period of time. The proposed project would ensure that households entering the Public Works program remain for the three years of program implementation to ensure that the beneficiaries are able to consolidate their asset base and can withstand small shocks.
Component 3 – Skills Development – US$3.5 million
19. The objective of Component 3 is to provide youth from poor and vulnerable households with access to livelihood opportunities through comprehensive skills development training comprised of technical, entrepreneurship and life skills. This component would also finance start-up activities that include grant and technical assistance to eligible graduates to start an income generating activity. The component would further support a contract for a youth needs assessment and market survey of in-demand skills in select sectors. Competent Implementing Partners, including NGOs, private sector organizations and/or consultancy firms would be contracted to implement the comprehensive skills development program.
20. Through this component, short term skills training would be provided to rural and urban poor youth, males as well as females, aged 18-30 years, focusing on skills for which there is a good demand in the market. A market assessment/skills gap study and youth needs assessment study would be conducted in Juba City and other six targeted Counties - Bor County, Ayod County, Gogrial West County, Tonj South County, Torit County and Kapoeta East County to identify a range of trades for skills training. Since each County is different, the trades and skills training would be customized as per the local demand and market needs. The beneficiaries would be selected by the BDC in a transparent manner, following the beneficiary targeting criteria, included in the POM, and facilitated by IPs. The information of all potential beneficiaries would be available in the management information system.
21. The skills training would be provided by highly competent implementing agencies, covering sector or trade specific skills, life skills, and TA. Training packages of various skills training programs, including Bank funded programs and those already implemented in South Sudan, are available. The training package for phase 1 would be prepared by implementing agencies following a review of already implemented skills training packages. Apart from skills training linked to local labor market demand, eligible beneficiaries would have an option to apply for a startup grant to engage in various income generating activities. The eligibility criteria and procedures that would be followed to approve such grants would be detailed in the POM.
22. Due to the unique context of South Sudan, not many skills training programs for youth have been implemented and there is limited knowledge of the local demand for specific trades, as
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well as existing constraints to employability at the grassroots level. In this regard a strong emphasis would be put on assessing the beneficiaries’ main constraints and needs to enable employability/starting income generating activity, through beneficiary profiling and program customization. Therefore, the skills component would be treated as a pilot project to be implemented in two phases:
• The first phase would be launched as a pilot to immediately provide training in two Counties and Juba city, benefiting 600 youth. This phase would also comprise building the capacity of Ministries and communities. Additionally, an operational and process evaluation of the pilot would be conducted, and any required adjustments of the model and its basic parameters, as well as the institutional and implementation arrangements would be undertaken.
• The second phase would include the expansion of the program in the initial two counties and Juba city, but also start operations in the four additional counties to benefit 2900 youth.
Table 3: Timeline and main targets for Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the skills development training
Target Target Counties Time Months
Phase 1 – Learning and capacity building
600 Juba city and 2 Counties
1.5 years 6 months for preparations 1 year for implementation
July 2013 to December 2014
Phase 2 – Scaling up
2900 Juba city and 6 Counties
2.5 years January 2014 to July 2016
Total 3500 6 counties in 3 States and Juba city
4 years July 2013 to July 2017
23. The main aim of phase 1 is to develop the most adequate model of intervention to increase the effectiveness of skills training by: (a) identifying relevant trades and training needs through market assessment studies in target counties and Juba city; (b) offer skills training based on already identified high demand sectors; (c) conduct a process review of the pilot program to identify areas in which necessary adjustments in the design and operations are required. A key aspect to be reviewed during phase 1 is the targeting mechanism used to select the poor youths. Phase 1 would help identify and test other variables and adjust the mechanism to ensure that only needy youth are registered in the skills training program.
24. In the case of South Sudan, there is an urgent need to start training youth immediately. Therefore, fast tracking of the process for selecting IPs for phase 1 is essential. It is recommended that one or two IPs with sound track record and experience in skills training in South Sudan could be selected quickly so that implementation of phase 1 could be started
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immediately with a small target group of beneficiaries. An appropriate procurement process will be followed to ensure the needs of this activity are met without delay.
25. The first round of training courses is expected to reach approximately 600 beneficiaries across two Counties and Juba City over a period of one year at a unit cost of roughly US$500 per beneficiary. Allowance to trainees for food and travel expenses up to US$50 per beneficiary for the duration of the training would also be provided under this component. Additionally, up to US$250, would be made available for eligible candidates for starting or engaging in income generating activities. This start up grant is based on a review of such grants included as part of already implemented skills training programs in South Sudan.
26. South Sudan’s economy is primarily informal and agriculture based. Therefore, the primary focus is on training youth for micro-enterprise development/self-employment. Additionally, not many skills training programs for youth have been implemented in the country and there is limited knowledge of local demand for specific trades. However, based on the experience of implementation of skills development programs implemented by NGOs in South Sudan, some specific trades which are in demand locally have been identified in the last couple of years. Given this practical experience, prevalence of the informal and agricultural sectors in the rural areas, and the emerging opportunities in urban centers, the key sectors that have been identified for providing skills training during the first Phase would include: (i) rural - agriculture, animal husbandry, vegetable cultivation, value addition of agriculture produce, and processing of non-timber forest produce; and (ii) urban – construction, hospitality, driving, and petty trade. In particular, Phase 1 would provide support for the following activities:
• Start training 600 youth in two Counties and Juba City; • Conduct youth needs assessment and market assessment in six project target Counties
and Juba city; • Conduct review of the process of the Phase 1 to identify areas in which necessary
adjustments in design and operations are required; • Revise the operations manual based on learning from the implementation of Phase 1; • Develop EoI and a RFP for selection of implementation agencies for the remaining
2900 youth; and • Develop online real time MIS for monitoring.
27. Building on the refinement of the program supported by Phase 1, Phase 2 of the skills development component would expand to training in the remaining four targeted Counties to train and employ 2900 poor youth. The key stakeholders for implementation of this Phase would be – (i) MoAFCRD and MoLPSHRD; (ii) State and County Governments; (iii) Communities; and (iv) Implementation Partners.
28. The triggers to move from Phase 1 to Phase 2 would be as follows: (i) Completed training of 600 youth; (ii) Market demand assessment and youth needs assessment studies conducted; (iii) Livelihoods Specialist selected as part of the TST; (v) Point persons for skills development component designated by Ministries and targeted States and Counties; (vi) Process review of Phase 1 is completed; (vii) Targeting mechanism to select the poor youth for training is developed;(viii) Revised operational manual is prepared based on lessons from the process review, market demand assessment and youth needs assessment studies; (ix) Expression of
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Interest (EoI) and Request for Proposal (RFP) for selecting implementing partners for Phase 2 is prepared; (x) Management Information System is developed; (xi ) system for releasing funds to implementing partners is developed. See Table 4 for more details.
Table 4: Triggers for phasing of the Skills Development Component
Duration Months Targeted Counties
Skills training target
Ph
ase 1
Preparation for starting
Phase 1
Due to urgent need for skills training in South Sudan, Immediately start skills training on the ground -
(i) Prepare a basic operational manual based on learning from already implemented skills training programs in South Sudan
(ii) Prepare and float EoI to selected implementing agencies for Phase 1
(iii) Select implementing partners and finalizing the contract (iv) Release first installment of funds to implementing
partners
9 months
July 2013 to March 2014
Implem
entation of Phase 1
(Learning and system
development P
hase)
(i) Start skills training in 2 Counties and Juba city to train 600 youth
9 months
March 2014 to November 2015
2 Counties & Juba city
600
Complete following tasks -
(i) Completed training of 600 youth (ii) Market demand assessment and youth needs
assessment study conducted; (iii) Livelihoods Specialist selected for TST; (iv) Point persons for skills development component
designated by Ministries, and targeted States and Counties;
(v) Process review of Phase 1 completed; (vi) Targeting mechanism to select the poor youth for
training developed; (vii) Revised operational manual prepared based on
learning from process review, market demand assessment and youth needs assessment studies;
(viii) Expression of Interest (EoI) and Request for (ix) Proposal (RFP) for selecting implementing
partners for Phase 2 prepared; (x) Management Information System developed; (xi) Payment release system implementing partners
developed. (xii) Issuing RFP and selection of implementing
partners for Phase 2
Phase 2
Implem
entation of P
hase 2 (S
caling up P
hase)
Provide training to 2900 across 6 targeted Counties and Juba city
2.5 years
July 2013 to July 2017
6 Counties and Juba City
2900
Total 4 years 6 Counties and Juba City
3500
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29. Phase 2 would have the following key features: (i) training courses would be market demand-driven, with sectors, trades and training courses based on a market assessment study conducted in all targeted areas conducted during Phase 1; and (ii) training providers, designing and carrying out skills training targeted to poor youth, would be selected through a competitive process.
30. The targeting mechanism revised during Phase 1 would be used to select the beneficiaries in the Phase 2. The IPs would use social mobilization strategies to mobilize youth in rural and urban areas. All potential beneficiaries would be registered into a beneficiary registry which would be part of the MIS. This beneficiary registry would include personal details, educational qualifications, skills level, sectors in which the beneficiaries are interested in, and whether they are willing to travel beyond their Boma or State in order to secure a job or starting their micro-enterprise. Figure 2 shows the project cycle of the skills development component.
Figure 2: Project cycle of the skills development component.
Step 3
Provide business development support services to youth for setting
up micro- enterprises
Provide a small grant to trained youth to set up their micro-enterprise or start any other income generating activity as per set criteria in Project
Operations Manual (POM)
Step 2
Offer Training (sector or trade specific skills, basic soft skills, life skills, financial literacy
skills and entrepreneurial skills)
Assessment and Recognition skills attainment.
Step 1
Mobilization of poor youth
Consultation with candidates and parents
Selecting interested candidates for skills
trainingNational level
State level
County level
Payam level
Boma level
Community – youth, parents, families
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Annex 3: Implementation Arrangements
SOUTH SUDAN: Safety Net and Skills Development Project Project Institutional and Implementation Arrangements
Coordination mechanism
1. The proposed National Project Steering Committee (PSC) would be a strategic body to provide general oversight and guidance for the overall management of the program and implementation of the individual components. It would also ensure that the longer term objectives of the proposed Project to support the development of a Social Protection System are achieved through active engagement and ownership of relevant institutions. In this regard, efforts would be made to coordinate and complement the role of the PSC the Joint Social Protection Working Group. The core members of the PSC would be MoFEP (Chair), MoGCSW (Co-chair), MoAFCRD, (co-chair), MoLPSHRD (member), MoCYS (member), MoE (member), LGB (member) and Implementing States (members).
2. The PSC would meet at least half-yearly throughout the project implementation period and would fulfill the TORs set out in the POM. The agenda and documentation for the PSC meetings would be prepared by the TST in close consultation with the PSC Chair. A quorum would be needed to meet and enforce decisions. The PSC would maintain meeting records that would be supported by the Project Coordinator, who would report to and serve as Secretary to the PSC. The key functions of the PSC would include:
• Provide guidance to the Government implementing agencies on policy issues; • Review and endorse annual work plans and budget allocations; • Review and endorse annual project progress reports; • Discuss and facilitate critical decisions for the implementation of various components; • Review and where necessary act on annual audit reports and audit recommendations; • Review and act on World Bank supervision reports; and • Facilitate partnerships with other stakeholders.
Implementation arrangements
3. The implementation of the overall project would be undertaken by the MoAFCRD. The MoGCSW and MoLPSHRD would provide support on Components 1 and 3, respectively, with the guidance of the PSC and in close collaboration with the National Social Protection Working Group. Figure 3 provides details. MoAFCRD would have fiduciary and reporting responsibilities while the project management responsibilities would be vested in a TST. The TST would be established in the MoAFCRD and staffed with contracted consultants as well as government personnel assigned by each of the three collaborating ministries. Key TST positions would include a Project Manager, Skills/Livelihoods Specialist, Financial Management Specialist, Procurement Specialist, M&E Specialist, and Safeguards Specialist. In order to better coordinate the technical inputs of the various components, Core Government Teams (mirroring the skills mix of the TST as much as possible) would be established in the MoGCSW, for the Social Protection System, MoAFCRD, for Public Works, and MoLPSHRD, for Skills Development.
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State TST coordinator and government staff of State MoAFCRD, and County TST coordinator with government staff of Department of AFCRD, would support the implementation of the SNSDP. Further, County Administration would provide oversight, monitoring, and implementation support to the Implementing Agencies/NGOs.
Figure 3: SNSDP Institutional Arrangements
4. In addition, given the implementation capacity limitation at the local level, NGOs would be contracted to support in the planning, technical design, implementation of project components and capacity building support for the local institutions. Components 2 and 3 would be implemented by NGOs or similar agencies contracted by the TST to undertake field-level implementation of the Public Works and Skills Development activities. Local level implementation and coordination arrangements would be established and facilitated by NGOs and specified as a requirement in the contract. The proposed Project would allocate adequate resources for the local level joint monitoring and implementation support by the appropriate government institutions.
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5. The Transitional Constitution (2011) sets out the basic principles of decentralization and the Local Government Act (LGA, 2009) provides for the devolution of functions to the ten states, 79 county governments and their sub-structures at payam (sub-county) and boma (village cluster) levels. While the overall policy framework for local governance continues to evolve, there is consensus that the core responsibilities of county governments include engaging communities, undertaking a local planning process and delivering basic public infrastructure and services. Therefore under SNSDP, the community mobilization process would include the establishment (or validation) of representative and inclusive BDCs and PDCs, orientation of PDC members and Payam Administrators to roles and responsibilities for the planning, implementation and oversight of Public Works. The facilitated and inclusive PW identification process involving citizens (through their BDCs) and the social and economic infrastructure identified would be integrated into the County Development Plan. The community-level implementation arrangements are in Figure 4. This would also provide the framework for activities by NGOs and other donor agencies operating in a particular county. Table 5 provides details on institutional roles and responsibilities.
Figure 4: Community-level Implementation Arrangements
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Table 5: Major Roles and Responsibilities of Institutions identified
Institutions Public Works Component Skills Development Component
National Level
Steering Committee (NSC)
• Overall policy and strategic guidance, oversight, accountability and coordination
• Review and endorse annual work plans and budget allocations; • Review and endorse annual project progress reports; • Review and where necessary act on annual audit reports and audit
recommendations; and • Facilitate partnerships with other stakeholders
MoAFCRD • Coordinate and oversee the implementation of Component 2: Public Works;
• Establish and manage TST; • Provide overall project oversight and management leadership; and • Establish a Tender Evaluation Committee, as & when needed
MoGCSW • Provide support to coordinate and oversee the implementation of component 1: Social Protection System,
• Establish a core team who would work with the TST; MoLPSHRD • Coordinate and oversee the implementation of component 3: Skills
Development, • Establish a core team who would work with the TST;
Technical Support Team (TST)
Project Management and systems development • Provide operational and technical leadership • Coordinate the project planning, implementation and M&E • Manage budget of the project • Oversee the Implementing Partner performance • Mentor and build capacities of civil servant staff at all levels including
core team assigned in the MoAFCRD, MoGCSW, MoLPSHRD) assigned as counterpart to the TST. Involve government staff in all the process of the project management;
• Review annual work plan and reports from the Implementing Partners and present to the NSC for approval,
• Develop the necessary training plan and materials • Ensure the compliance of overall standards required by the project • Ensure adherence to the Project Operations Manual (POM);
Fiduciary • Develop and functionalize Financial Management and procurement
systems for the project and; • Prepare and update the project’s Financial Management, Procurement
and Disbursement Plans and ensure adherence to IDA guidelines; • Support preparation of the quarterly IFRs for submission to the IDA • Monitor the project’s Designated Account and managing
replenishments based on the Interim Financial Reports (IFRs); • Conduct the procurement of goods and services for the Project in
accordance with IDA guidelines; • Review, monitor, and follow-up on contracts and their assignments;
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Institutions Public Works Component Skills Development Component Work Plans • Based on the submission from the states, prepare budgeted annual work
plans by program component for the NSC and IDA’s approval; • Supervise the implementation of tasks against work plans and targets;
and • Prepare Project Progress Reports for the PSC and IDA review and
approval.
Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) • Prepare and update the project’s M&E Framework; • Supervise the establishment and management of a simple and
functioning MIS and collect and monitor data against the M&E framework;
Facilitate the planning and supervision of the project • impact evaluation surveys and analysis; • Prepare regular Project progress reports and Environmental and Social Safeguards Management • monitor and appraise sub-projects against the ESSAF and ESMP; • Manage the Complaints Handling System; • Oversee overall safeguards implementation; • Develop safeguards training plan and material; and • Build capacity of the State and County Safeguards Focal Points,
implementing partners, and relevant stakeholders. Implementing Partners • Facilitate PW planning and assist
the BDC and the PDC in preparation of annual PW plans;
• Finalize designs for PW in consultation with County Core Team;
• Implementation of PW which includes follow up on attendance of and contribution of PW participants, ensure quality of works;
• Facilitate and or conduct payment to participating HHs, etc.
• Transfer Knowledge to the team of government officials at all levels of local governments involved;
• Support the establishment of Appeal Committees at the Payam and Boma levels and provide orientation on the appeals system and procedure;
• Facilitate the posting of approved
• Prepare skills training modules, arrange for training logistics, and train target beneficiaries;
• Screen trainees to validate the targeting;
• Monitor the attendance, involvement and progress of trainees;
• Make payment of training allowance to the trainees
• Prepare reports and submit it to TST.
•
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Institutions Public Works Component Skills Development Component list of beneficiaries and budget information in public places
State Level
State Steering Committee
• Oversee integration of project plans with overall state and county plans, and project implementation within the State;
• Review and endorse annual work plans and budget submitted by Counties/ implementing partners; and
• Review and endorse annual project progress reports submitted by Counties/ implementing partners.
State Coordinator – One TST member with a geographical responsibility
• Liaise between the TST, SSC and Implementing Partner(s). • Supervise and provide technical support to the county coordinator; • provide technical support to the County Core Team; • Support the Counties in the oversight of the project implementation;
and • Reviews and compiles annual plans and reports of the Counties
County Level
County Legislative Council (CLC)
• Oversee the project implementation • Approves Project plans of the County and send it to the SSC
County Executive Director
• Ensures County Core Team are in place • Coordinates the County Core Team • Ensure that the Boma and Payam plans are integrated into the County
Annual Plans County Coordinator (one TST member each for three rural Counties)
• Liaise between the TST and Implementing Partner(s); • Coordinates and provides technical support to the County Core Team; • Support the Payam and Bomas in the supervision of the project
implementation; and • Compiles annual plans and reports of the Counties and send them to the
State coordinator. County Core Team (at least one each from Departments of Agriculture, Social Development, and Labor)
• Supervise and provide technical support to the Payam Core Team; • Consolidate plans and reports coming from Payams and ensure
integration into departmental plans and programs, as necessary; and • Report to the County Executive Director.
Payam Level
Payam Development Committee (PDC)
• Work with Boma and village leaders during beneficiary targeting, and project identification and prioritization;
• Work with implementing partners in the development of proposals; • Keep records of beneficiary profiles; • Ensure Labor management for efficient and effective use of the
available labor force and resources; • Submit process and progress report to the County Executive Director • Work toward sustaining the management of created assets during and
after completion; • Ensure the availability of hand tools, inputs (industrial goods, etc.)
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Institutions Public Works Component Skills Development Component • Consolidate Plans of Bomas; • Approve annual plans of Bomas; and • Ensure quality of work output.
Payam Administrator • Works as Secretary for the Payam Development Committee; and • Coordinates the team of experts.
Payam Technical Officers
• Work with implementing partners in the development of annual plans, implementation and monitoring of project progress;
• Provide technical support to the BDC
Boma Level
Boma Development Committee (BDC)
• Facilitate identification of target beneficiaries and validation by the community;
• Facilitate the identification and prioritization of public works activities; • Supervises the project implementation; • Together with local chief maintain peace and stability; • Monitor the daily attendance and ensure quality of work output; • Keep records of beneficiary profiles; and • Ensure the safe keeping of hand tools, inputs (industrial goods, etc.) • Ensure the approved beneficiary list is posted in public places.
Boma Executive Chief • Overall coordination
Capacity building and system development
6. Social protection is increasingly recognized as an essential public service for the poor and vulnerable people in post conflict and fragile states. However, owing to the limited capacity of government, civil society, private sector and community at large in post conflict and fragile states, delivering social protection services is difficult. Humanitarian aid financed by donors and delivered by international aid agencies and NGOs has been the primary mechanism for providing social protection services, especially the poor, in South Sudan. In the absence of a public sector providing basic services, the humanitarian aid has been serving as an instrument of last resort. In addition to the limited coverage of the needy through humanitarian aid, there is also a concern that it undermines the national and local capacities, potentially detrimental to the state building process and the social and political contract between a state and its citizens. In accordance with the envisaged design of the proposed Project, there would be strong emphasis on capacity building and systems development for the effective implementation of this Phase and also any future Social Protection related interventions. All capacity building interventions of the SNSDP would also be coordinated with the efforts of the other programs to be ensured by the National PSC. Based on a capacity building needs assessment, the proposed Project would support the government in defining a clear strategy on how to systematically address capacity needs. Details of capacity building activities that would be financed by the project is presented under component 1.
Project Management
7. The ultimate aim of the project is to ensure that government institutions at all levels responsible for implementation and management of the interventions, have the requisite capacity to do so. Therefore, instead of establishing an independent PIU, the proposed Project would
49
constitute a TST, to augment the limited implementation capacity, comprised of contracted professionals and seconded counterpart staff. NGOs would be involved in the implementation of the SNSDP activities and provision of technical support at the local level. Resources would be allocated to strengthen the project management and monitoring capacity.
8. The proposed Project’s overall implementation would be the responsibility of the TST, which would be established in the MoAFCRD. The TST would be responsible for the following activities: i) preparation of annual work plans, procurement plans, and budgets, and submission of semi-annual progress reports; (ii) provision of training and technical assistance to support, inter alia, the design and implementation of a Management Information System (MIS), internal audit, financial management and procurement; (iii) the preparation of tender documents for recruiting NGOs to implement project activities; (iv) supervision of NGOs tasked with the implementation of PW and skills development training; (v) oversight of monitoring and evaluation efforts; (vi) ensuring adherence to social and environmental screening and mitigation measures outlined in the ESSAF, ESMPs and the POM, including establishment of a feedback and complaints handling mechanism; and (vii) coordination with and outreach to Project stakeholders. Detailed responsibilities and procedures of the TST are documented in the POM.
Targeting
9. The proposed Project would enhance targeting through:
• geographic targeting by focusing on the areas where the poorest and most vulnerable people live;
• community-based targeting, using simple and objective criteria to select the poorest households (details in Table 6). The key community targeting elements include the actual identification of target households ensuring 30% beneficiaries to be women and youth in the age group of 18-30 years, and verification of the beneficiary list in a public meeting; and
• administrative targeting which would complement the community targeting through verifying the community level targeting and coordinating with other supports to the poor. The administrative targeting elements include project beneficiary number allocation (i.e. the number of beneficiaries which can be targeted in a specific state, county, etc. would be provided as an input to the beneficiary identification process to prevent conflict and to ensure viable numbers for proper design and implementation of works), input into the key targeting criteria used within a locality, oversight of the accuracy and transparency of the targeting system; and assignment of each beneficiary household to only one program – either Public Works or Skills Development;
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Table 6: Targeting and beneficiary selection under SNSDP
Steps Criteria Tasks / Outcomes Responsible Institution
Geographic Targeting
One state per greater region and the capital city as a Government priority
Three states and Juba city
Joint World Bank- Government team
State
• level of poverty in the states • food insecurity • infant mortality • maternal mortality • number of orphans
Eastern Equatoria, Jonglei, and Warrap selected based on data from the National Bureau of Statistics
Joint World Bank- Government team
County
• level of poverty • accessibility • security • number of returnees
Two counties per state – one urban and one rural, selected from each of the three project states; and only Juba city for Central Equatoria.
Stakeholder meeting including State and National Government representatives, Donor representatives
Number of Beneficiaries in a county
• level of poverty • proportion of beneficiaries in urban
versus rural counties at 40 percent urban and 60 percent rural beneficiaries
Number per urban and rural county, separately for Public Works and Skills Development programs.
State Teams along with Implementation Partners
Number of beneficiaries per Payam in a County
• level of poverty/vulnerability • number of poor households
Number of beneficiaries across different Payams of selected counties
County Core Teams with Implementation Partners
Identification of Beneficiary households
• Households with poor women and youth with limited or no income and employment opportunities
• Conflict and Social Analysis methodology informed community-based beneficiary identification instead of self-selection to both increase sensitivity of communities to the situation of the poor and vulnerable households, build social cohesion, and mitigate any potential conflict.
• Agreed list (specified number) of poorest households in the community
RURAL: Payam and Boma Development Committees facilitated by Implementation Partners URBAN: Payam and Boma Development Committees in urban centers facilitated by Implementation Partners
Public Works Youth aged between 18 and 30 years and • Agreed list of
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Steps Criteria Tasks / Outcomes Responsible Institution
women from poorest households and without sufficient income to sustain the family; • Households that fulfill selection
criteria but with able bodied above 30 years participate on the PW as proxy.
poorest households
Skills Development
• Youth aged between 18 and 30 years, and women from poorest households;
• At least 30% beneficiaries to be women;
• Assignment to specific technical skills training based on market needs and desired eligibility criteria;
Agreed list of poor men and women
Administrative verification
• Pre-determined number of project beneficiaries per state, county, payam and boma; separately for Public Works and Skills Development.
• Oversight of the accuracy and transparency of the targeting system
• Assignment of a beneficiary household to only one program – either Public Works or Skills Development to ensure equity.
Based on pre-determined criteria and a transparent process, selected poor households are assigned to programs
Payam Development Committee and Implementation Partners
Validation
Finalized list separately for Public Works and Skills Development after rationalizing community identified list of beneficiaries versus administrative assessment
List of finally selected households for Public works and Skills Development, validated at community meetings.
Communities facilitated by Implementation Partners
Beneficiary registration and issuance of ID cards
Based on validated list of beneficiaries, household data and biometric data of household participant collected.
Key data on selected households and their members including biometric data entered into a registry and ID cards issued.
County Core Team, Payam Development Committee and Implementation Partners
10. The identification, screening and enrollment of beneficiaries would be undertaken through a participatory process led by the BDCs (that have representatives from women, youth, elders, traditional chief and vulnerable groups including disabled, displaced and returnees of the area where the project would be implemented) and facilitated by the IPs.
• For the PW activities beneficiaries would be screened against eligibility criteria including: (i) youth (at least 30% women) and able bodied; (ii) out of school and living in the project area; (iii) poor and with no sufficient income to sustain the family; and (iv) assessed as healthy enough to participate in the program. Detailed procedures and criteria for the identification and screening of individual beneficiaries would be further elaborated in the POM to ensure fairness, transparency and practicality.
• For Skills Development activities, the criteria include: (i) youth and women; (ii) considerations for gender equity of beneficiaries; (iii) education status, the qualifications of which may vary depending on the choice of technical skills of beneficiaries; (iv) poor
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and with no sufficient income to sustain the family; and (v) interest in active participation throughout the cycle of project activities. The eligibility criteria would be detailed in the POM and would be subject to validation among key stakeholders to ensure widespread consensus and agreement on eligibility.
Payment Mechanism
11. The proposed Project would transfer cash benefits through a formal payment mechanism that would ensure the agreed benefits are delivered in a timely manner, with minimum transaction costs to entitled recipients, and reasonable administrative cost to the project. The payment mechanism would have the following steps: (i) final list of approved beneficiaries (as selected by the BDC, validated by community general assembly and approved by the county development committee) would be registered in the project MIS. These participating beneficiaries would collectively sign this document to indicate their agreement to participate in these activities on the terms and conditions indicated therein; (ii) beneficiaries in the project database would be provided with program Identity Card (ID); (iii) beneficiaries would participate in the PW activities and IPs record participation in an attendance sheet prepared for the project and the same would be verified and approved by the BDC; (iv) participants would present their ID and collect their payment from IPs. The payment would be conducted in or close to the beneficiary’s village and the process would be monitored by the BDC; (v) beneficiaries may present their complaints to the Appeals Committee if they feel they are not paid the full amount they are entitled; the Appeals Committee would decide on the case; and (vi) the IP would submit consolidated payment report to the MoAFCRD which hosts the TST for review and verification.
12. While the IPs would be responsible to ensure the cash transfers are delivered to the entitled beneficiary, recorded in the project MIS and report submitted timely to the government implementing agency, the TST would be responsible to track and reconcile the transfers through various mechanisms including: (i) regular project supervision by BDC, PDC, County Core Team, and TST members from County, State and Central Government level; (ii) posting list of beneficiaries and the amount they received in public place in the boma; (iii) verification using independent consultants; (iv) complaint handling mechanisms; and (v) conducting a community scorecard exercise. Detailed procedures and stakeholder involved in the payment mechanism would be outlined in the POM.
Financial Management, Disbursements and Procurement Financial Management 13. The World Bank requires the recipient and implementing agencies to maintain adequate financial management arrangements–including accounting, financial reporting, internal controls, budgeting and auditing arrangements–to ensure that accurate and timely financial information can be provided regarding resources and expenditures, and that funds would be used only for the intended purposes. A Financial Management Assessment (FMA)12 is aimed at ensuring that
12 FMA is conducted in accordance with OPCS guidelines titled “Assessment of Financial Management Arrangements in World Bank-Financed Projects – Guidelines to Staff” issued by the Financial Management Sector
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these requirements are met. Given that the implementing entity – MoAFCRD - had previously undertaken projects under the MDTF-SS and is currently implementing a Bank Assisted project, a desk review was carried out to assess their continuous ability to implement other World Bank financed projects.
14. Financial management capacity challenges that are likely to affect the project still exist. These include lack of key financial management competencies and internal controls at the ministry, as reliance is still on consultants. Therefore, financial management for the project would be supported by consultants, while the financial management capacity of the ministries is being developed with support from the proposed Project. As indicated above the TST would be made up of key project staff including a professional Financial Management Specialist, with relevant and adequate qualification and experience acceptable to the World Bank. The financial management risk is assessed as Substantial.
Country Issues
15. A Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability Assessment (PEFA) was carried out for GOSS and four sub-national governments: Jonglei; Unity; Western Equatoria; and Northern Bahr-el- Ghazal states. The report indicates that: (i) the budget is prepared with regard to government policies; (ii) there is ongoing installation of an integrated financial management system; (iii) an electronic payroll system is in place; and (iv) emerging internal and external audit systems exist. However, it noted that downstream PFM areas, such as budget execution, accounting and some internal control systems, are still characterized by significant weaknesses, resulting in budgets that are not credible. It indicated: aggregate and spending agencies’ expenditure outturns are significantly different from the approved budgets; constitutional and legal controls on changes in approved budget are not fully adhered to; low in-year predictability of availability of funds; build-up of payment arrears; non transparent public procurement system; and lack of robust internal control system amongst other things.
Project Financial Management System
16. Financial management for the proposed Project would be carried out by the TST which would engage a professionally qualified Financial Management Specialist and would also include assigned government accountants to promote the transfer of skills and knowledge and build financial management capacity within government.
17. The Audit Chamber has the constitutional responsibility for external audit but currently has limited capacity. The project would support the Audit Chamber to engage an External Audit Agent to ensure that staff of the Audit Chamber are able to carry out a Project Financial Audit to provide an independent opinion on the reliability of the financial statements produced for the project, the systems and internal controls used by the project and the eligibility of expenditures incurred.
Board on October 15, 2003, and the Financial Management Manual for Bank-Financed Investment Operations issued on March 1, 2010.
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Budgeting Arrangements
18. The TST, working closely with each of the participating ministries and relevant and partners would prepare the budget, work plan and cash flow forecast for each component and submit for the necessary approvals from the line ministries, MoFEP and the TTL.
Accounting Arrangements
19. The project Operations Manual and PFM Manual would be developed and would include the relevant accounting procedures. The project accounting would be on a cash basis and would cover all project funds including IDA and any other contributions. These would be supported with appropriate records and documentation to track commitments and to safeguard assets. Accounting records would be maintained in US$ and SSP. The TST and each ministry responsible for project implementation would ensure that:
• All important business and financial processes are adhered to; • Adequate internal controls and procedures are in place; • Interim un-audited Financial Reports (IFRs) are prepared on a timely basis; • The financial information required by the TST are provided promptly by the NGOs and
each ministry; • The financial statements are prepared on a timely basis and in accordance with
International Accounting Standards (IAS) or International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS);
• The external audit is completed on time and audit findings and recommendations are implemented expeditiously.
20. The Chart of Accounts would facilitate the preparation of relevant reports and financial statements, including information on total project expenditures; total expenditure on each project component/activity, and analysis of that total expenditure into various categories of goods, training, consultants and other procurement and disbursement categories. Efforts would be made to ensure that project financial management records would be maintained using a computerized system and necessary training carried out for the accounting staff. All transactions would be properly accounted for and recorded properly.
21. Normal government regulations would continue to be applicable as documented in the Public Financial Management and Accountability Act (PFMAA) of 2011. These regulations require accountability of all funds. In addition, the Operations Manual would describe all requirements regarding the different components. For all components, eligibility of expenditures would be based on the actual amount expended evidenced by appropriate supporting documents.
Internal Control and Internal Auditing
22. The project Operations Manual and the PFM Manual would incorporate relevant internal control procedures and those acceptable for approval and payment processes. These procedures require that the implementing ministry certifies the completion and acceptance of goods or services before requesting for payment. The TST/Financial Management Specialist would also ensure that the contracts are consistent with the invoices and payment request before processing
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them. They would also monitor and report on the utilization of project funds, including the fiduciary standards complied with and the reliability of the FM system. The Fixed Assets Register relating to the project would be prepared by the project and shall be updated. Physical verification/count of assets is carried out periodically. A Contracts Register would also be maintained in respect of all contracts with consultants, contractors and suppliers. The TST would prepare Contract Status Reports quarterly as part of the IFRs. Control procedures over fixed assets and contracts management would be the responsibility of the TST.
23. MoFEP’s Internal Audit at national level would review the activities of the project and report semiannual basis to National Project Steering Committee, TST, MoFEP, implementing ministries and the World Bank.
Financial Reporting Arrangements
24. Quarterly IFRs would be prepared by the TST/Financial Management Specialist and would cover all project funds for the purpose of monitoring the implementation of the project and submitted to project National Steering Committee, MoFEP, the World Bank and other participating ministries and agencies within 45 days of the end of each fiscal quarter. This report must cover all IDA funds received for the project as a whole as well as counterpart or government funds received under the project if any. It includes a statement showing: period and cumulative inflows by sources and outflows by main expenditure classifications; beginning and ending cash balances of the project; and supporting schedules comparing actual and planned expenditures. Expenditures would be classified by component and by category. Semiannual cash forecast statement should also be included. A template for this report would be agreed upon between MoFEP, TST and the World Bank during negotiations.
25. The TST/Financial Management Specialist would be responsible for providing overall consolidated financial reports as defined in the relevant covenants. The accounting system to be put in place would ensure that financial reports would be designed to provide relevant and timely information to the project management, implementing agencies, and various stakeholders monitoring the project’s performance. It is expected that all levels of implementation would maintain adequate filing and archival system of all accounting and relevant supporting documents for review by the World Bank’s FM team during supervision mission and also for audit purposes.
26. The TST/Financial Management Specialist would also prepare annual financial statements (AFS) for the entire project. The content of the statements would be documented in the Audit TORs agreed during project negotiation. The AFS would be prepared in accordance with International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS). The AFS shall include adequate notes and disclosures consistent with the cash basis of financial reporting under the IPSAS
27. Formats of the various period financial monitoring reports will be generated and will have clear linkages between the information in these reports and the Chart of Accounts. The financial reports should provide quality and timely information to the project management implementation. The following quarterly IFRs will be produced by TST: A statement of Sources and Uses of funds for the reported quarter and cumulative period (from project inception) reconciled to the opening and closing bank balances; and A statement of uses of funds; Uses of
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Funds by Disbursement Category; Uses of Funds by Disbursement Category; Summary of Cash Requirement by quarter; Planned vs. Actual-Sources of funds; and Summary Statement of DA Expenditures for Contract subject to Prior Review.
Auditing
28. The Audit Chamber has the constitutional responsibility for carrying out all audits in the Republic of South Sudan. The World Bank, through the Multi Donor Trust Fund, has supported the Audit Chamber in developing its capacity. However, as it is not fully developed, and in order to continue to support the strengthening of country systems, the Project Financial Audit would be carried out by the audit chamber with support from an audit agent. The proposed Project would be required to support the financing of this external audit. The audited project annual financial statements together with any additional information required would be submitted to the World Bank within six months after the end of the financial year. The audit would be in conformity with the World Bank’s audit requirements and in accordance with internationally recognized auditing standards. The auditor would express an opinion on the Financial Statements in compliance with International Standards on Auditing (ISA). The external auditors would also prepare a Management Letter giving observations and comments, and providing recommendations for improvements in accounting records, systems, controls and compliance with financial covenants in the Financing Agreement.
Fraud and Corruption 29. Possibility of circumventing the internal control system with colluding practices as bribes, abuse of administrative positions, misprocurement etc., is a critical issue and may include: (a) late submission of supporting documents; (b) poor filing and records; (c) lack of system integration; (d) lack of budget discipline; (e) unauthorized commitment to suppliers, bypassing budget and expenses vetting procedures; (f) unsecured safekeeping and transportation of funds. These are mitigated as follows: (i) specific aspects on corruption auditing would be included in the external audit TOR; (ii) the internal auditor at National level would report directly to the MoFEP as well as present semi-annual reports to the World Bank; (iii) FM Procedures (as part of Operations Manual) approved before project effectiveness and the Local Government PFM Manual would be finalized before any disbursement to the project in regards to component 2; (iv) strong FM arrangements (including qualified Financial Management Specialist, periodic IFR including budget execution and monitoring; (v) measures to improve social accountability and transparency are built into the project design.
Action Plan 30. The financial management action plan in Table 7 indicates the actions to be taken for the proposed Project to address the weaknesses that have been identified and to ensure the FM system is robust and strengthened. Some of these activities and actions are to be completed during project appraisal and prior to credit effectiveness and these would be monitored on an ongoing basis during implementation.
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Table 7: Financial Management Action Plan
Action Responsibility Due Date 1 Appoint qualified and experienced Financial
Management Specialist at TST MoAFCRD Effectiveness
2 Designate government accountants and internal auditor to support the project at TST
MoAFCRD June 15, 2013
3 Prepare Project Operations Manual incorporating FM procedures and FM manual
MoAFCRD Effectiveness
4 Procure desktops and install a computerized Accounting System including training of staff
MoAFCRD Three (3) months after effectiveness
5 Open a Designated Account and a SSP account. Advise World Bank of Signatories and other Banking information
MoFEP Prior to Disbursement
6 Prepare TORs for the financial audit of the project MoAFCRD 3 months after effectiveness
7 Support Audit Chamber to engage External Audit Agent to carry out Project Financial Audit
MoAFCRD Nine (9) months after effectiveness
8 Agree on IFR format MoAFCRD Negotiation
Conclusion and Supervision Plan 31. In the first year of implementation, there would be two on-site visits to ascertain continued adequacy of arrangements, supplemented by desk reviews of IFRs, monitoring reports and annual audit reports. The FM supervision mission’s objectives would include ensuring that strong financial management systems are maintained for the project throughout project life. Missions would also include visits to selected PDG beneficiaries to verify financial record keeping and procedures. In adopting a risk-based approach to FM supervision, the key risk areas of focus would include assessing the accuracy and reasonableness of budgets, their predictability and budget execution, compliance with payment and fund disbursement arrangements.
Project FM Risk Assessment and Mitigation 32. The residual FM risk of the program is assessed as Substantial, details are in Table 8. The FM risk rating is expected to improve over time with capacity building for key staff and as management becomes more conversant with the process.
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Table 8: Financial Management Risk Rating Summary Table
Risk Risk Rating
Risk Mitigating Measures/Remarks Residual Risk
Rating Country Level Apart from the PFMA Act that has been passed, Internal Audit, Audit Chamber and Procurement Bills are still outstanding. Weaknesses exist in the effective use of public funds, weak oversight regarding transparency and accountability. Poor linkages between strategic planning and long term budgeting at the sector levels. The weaknesses in planning and budgeting, revenue administration, budget execution (including procurement), internal controls, and accounting and reporting systems are noted in the recent SS CIFA
H
GOSS is strengthening capacity building through deepening ongoing reforms in public financial management. Fiduciary framework for the project supported by engagement of professional qualified project accountant. External Audit Agents would support the Audit Chamber. Dissemination of the CIFA has been done and an action plan agreed. Developing Partners are supporting government in implementing the action plan.
S
Entity Level The implementing ministries have experience in handling World Bank managed projects, with capacity built through the MDTF. However this is through the use of consultants and national capacity is still very limited and weak in basic PFM areas including in management of public funds.
H
A PFM Manual would be developed and would be finalized during implementation. Continuous capacity building mechanisms and interventions including training and institutional strengthening activities are embedded in the project.
S
Project Level Integration of project activities, staff and reporting requirements into the Counties could prove challenging. Project has a number of implementing entities with low capacity. Management’s ability to undertake effective monitoring of beneficiaries to ensure project achieves value for money may be a challenge.
S
The provision of operational guidelines, PFM Manual and practical continual training may help mitigate the risk. Oversight mechanisms and sanctions are designed and included as part of this project. TOR of annual audits to also include field visits and report of selected beneficiaries. External Audit Agent would be engaged to support the Audit Chamber in its audit responsibilities.
M
Overall Inherent Risk H S
Budgeting Budgets are not comprehensive; budgeting, cash flow forecasts, planning and controlling are not properly executed; overspending which makes budgetary control difficult and the use of such budgets as a tool for performance monitoring is weak.
S
Work plans and budgets would be required to be prepared by TST working closely with the all implementing entities. The World Bank would also review these. TST would design and implement budget monitoring measures. Project budget figures would be captured in the overall GOSS budget to support the creation of a comprehensive budget with donor input. PFM Manual includes detail procedures for budget preparation and monitoring.
S
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Accounting Accounting records and documents may not be accurate at county level. The counties have no comprehensive accounting procedures manual and systems in place and the current accounting staffs have little experience with project management and reporting. The current manual accounting system in use could result in delays in reporting
H
Oversight mechanisms and sanctions are designed and included as part of this project. TST which includes professionally qualified staff would regularly supervise the utilization of resources An experienced Financial Management Specialist would be contracted for the TST. PFM Manual is developed and finalized before project implementation. Test runs of transfers will be carried in an extensive supervision of the first set of transfers to identify any trouble spots early before the full implementation is under way.
S
Internal Controls Controls in the preparation and approval of transactions, payments, cash and bank transactions may not be complied with. Risk of ineligible expenditures exists. Currently, internal audit is absent or very weak at the county level and where they exist their focus is on transactions rather than risk, and hence would not be of much help to the project with regard to monitoring of performance of beneficiaries
S
PFM Manual is developed and would be finalized before project implementation with detailed procedures and formats relating to all grants to counties as well as the approval and authorization processes should be implemented. Oversight mechanisms and sanctions are designed and included as part of this project including internal, external and an annual performance audit.
S
Funds Flow Many implementing entities, lack of experience in World Bank disbursement procedures, Likely delays in fund flows and slow disbursement
H
Training on FM and disbursement issues. S
Financial Reporting Delays in processing and submitting IFRs and other progress reports to ensure compliance with reporting deadlines. Information received from implementing entities may also be inaccurate for report preparation
S
Standard reporting templates and timelines for submission would be agreed and compliance strictly monitored. An accounting software would support in the preparation of reports and financial statements
M
Auditing
Audits may not be completed on time to ensure compliance with covenants. Likely capacity challenges in the Audit Chamber.
S
The TST would develop a TOR for audit and commence process of appointing an auditor shortly after effectiveness. The Audit Chamber would outsource the external auditing activity
M
Overall Control Risk H S
Overall Risk Rating H S
H – High S – Substantial M – Moderate L – Low
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Funds Flow and Disbursement Arrangements 33. The proposed Project Accountant shall submit payment requests to the World Bank based on Direct Payment, Advances, and Reimbursements. Expenditure reporting would be based on IFRs and detailed disbursement arrangements would be documented in the Disbursement Letter.
34. TST financial management and accounting systems which will facilitate the use of report based disbursement where cash flow forecasts based on work plans are submitted for a period of six (6) months every quarterly period along with Interim Financial Reports (IFRs). The IFRs will be submitted for disbursement on a quarterly basis. In compliance with the report based guidelines, we will expect the project to (a) sustain satisfactory financial management rating during project supervision; (b) submit IFRs consistent with the agreed format and content within 45 days of the end of each reporting period; and (c) submit a Project Audit Report by the due date, within six months after the end of the financial year.
35. TST will be expected to submit a six (6) months cash flow forecast after effectiveness based on its work plan using the report based method of disbursement to IDA for disbursement. IDA will then deposit funds into the Designated Account and these funds will be used by the Borrower to finance IDA' share of project expenditures under proposed Credit.
36. Upon effectiveness, TST will have the following disbursement methods during implementation for the different components: Advance, Reimbursement, Direct Payment and Special Commitment. If ineligible expenditures are found to have been made from the Designated Account, the Borrower will be obligated to refund the same. If the Designated Account remains inactive for more than six (6) months, the Borrower may be requested to refund to IDA amounts advanced to the Designated Account.
Funds Flow and Banking Arrangements
37. The TST/Financial Management Specialist shall submit withdrawal applications to the World Bank based on Advances, Reimbursements and Direct payments. Detailed disbursement arrangements would be documented in the Disbursement Letter.
38. A segregated Designated Account (DA) in US Dollar (USD) would be opened for the grant funds from IDA in a commercial bank acceptable to IDA, after conducting an appropriate Financial Institution (FI) due diligence review.
39. Disbursements into the designated account and the ceiling of the DA would be based on a six months projected expenses.
40. A sub-account of the DA would be opened in South Sudanese Pounds (SSP) at national level in a commercial bank acceptable to IDA.
41. USD payments would be made from the USD DA while payment in SSP would be made from the SSP sub-account upon transfer of same amount from the USD account. Transfers from the US$ account to the SSP sub-account would only be made after the expenditure has been incurred and payments are to be made. In essence, as much as possible, the SSP sub-account at the national level would have a zero balance.
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42. IDA funds would be transferred into the DA against an approved Withdrawal Application to be prepared by the TST. Subsequent withdrawals would be based on the actual amount expended with a forecast of expenditure and cash flow needs for the next six months.
43. Transfer of funds to implementing partners, NGOs, CBOs and private sector (Component 2&3) would be by direct payments from the DA upon submission of necessary reports including work plan, staffing plan, implementation reports which includes progress and financial reports, specifying clear activities and outputs/outcomes, and invoices and approval by the TST. The transferred funds will be treated as advances and recognized only as expenditure only when there are clear evidence and documentation indicating that funds have reached the final beneficiaries.
44. States would be required to open a dedicated bank account in SSP at a registered bank for operating costs for supervision and coordination at the state and county level coordination. All payments for goods, services and operating costs that are eligible under the project would be made from this account and processed by the Accounts Officer; signatories to the States bank account would be the State Coordinator and the Accounts Officer. Fund Flow arrangements are shown in Figure 5.
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•
Documents flow Funds flow
Figure 5. Flow of Funds
Implementing
Partners/NGOs
MoFEP/MoA/TST USD Designated Account
NGOs/CBOs/Private Sector (Component
2)
States/ SSP Sub-Account for supervision and coordination of
components 1 & 2
IDA
Goods, Services
and Works
(Components 3)
Other donors
Goods, Services
and Works
MoFEP /MoA/TST (SSP)
Sub-Account
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Procurement 45. In South Sudan, public procurement is governed by the Interim Public Procurement and Disposal Regulations (IPPDR), 2006. The Government is preparing a new Procurement Law which is at Draft Bill stage and expected to be enacted in 2013. As for the IPPDR, the draft Bill designates Ministry of Finance as the only procuring entity and all other Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies would have to apply to be designated as procuring entities by the Minister of Finance. All procurement for the project is envisaged to be conducted by MoAFCRD. At present MoAFCRD is not a designated procuring entity as per the requirements of IPPDR. MoAFCRD has assured that it would be designated after fulfilling the requirements in the very near future.
46. World Bank Guidelines shall apply: Procurement for the proposed project would be carried out in accordance with the World Bank’s “Guidelines: Procurement of Goods, Works and Non Consulting Services under IBRD Loans and IDA Credits and Grants by World Bank Borrowers” dated January 2011, “Guidelines: Selection and Employment of Consultants under IBRD Loans and IDA Credits and Grants by World Bank Borrowers” dated January 2011 and the “Guidelines on Preventing and Combating Fraud and Corruption in Projects Financed by IBRD Loans and IDA Credits and Grants”, dated October 15, 2006 and revised in January 2011. National Competitive Bidding (NCB) shall be in accordance with procedures acceptable to the Bank. In line with the ISN, procurement under the project would operate under OP/BP 10.00 on Projects in Situations of Urgent Need of Assistance or Capacity Constraints and would therefore benefit from the flexibility on procurement methods and applicable thresholds among others.
47. Component specific procurement: Under component 1, Social Protection Systems Building and Project Management, goods like office furniture and equipment, IT equipment, vehicles would be procured and selection of Technical Assistants done by MoAFCRD. Under component 2-Public Works: NGO(s) would be contracted to implement Public Works. Under component 3-Skills Development, NGOs and consulting firms would be selected by MoAFCRD to execute technical training activities.
48. Procurement and Selection Methods: Procurement of goods, works and non-consulting services would utilize methods such as International Competitive Bidding (ICB), NCB, Procurement from UN Agencies, Community Participation, Force Account, Shopping, and Direct Contracting. At the start of the proposed Project, the need for ICB has not been established. Procurement from UN Agencies such as UNOPS would be used for procurement of vehicles. Selection of consultants would follow QCBS, QBS, Selection based on Consultants’ Qualification (CQS), LCS, FBS, Selection of Individual Consultants and SSS. Both procurement of goods and selection of consultants would utilize World Bank Standard Bidding Documents/Request for Proposal.
49. Workshops, conference attendance and study tours would be carried out on the basis of approved annual/semi-annual work plans that would identify the general framework of training or similar activities, including the nature of training/study tours/workshops, number of participants, and estimated cost.
50. Operating costs, excluding salaries, bonuses, and fees for government civil servants,
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would be incurred using procedures acceptable to the World Bank.
51. Assessment of agency’s capacity to implement procurement: The World Bank team made a procurement assessment of the MoAFCRD, which would implement all the procurements under the project. Though this ministry has gained some experience in procurement in the course of implementation of projects funded by MDTF-SS and the World Bank over past couple of years, it lacks capacity to conduct procurement independently. Thus, procurement under MoAFCRD would be conducted with the support of the TST which would include contracted individuals with technical and fiduciary skills necessary for managing project implementation. Besides the Procurement Specialist, the TST would include Project Manager, M&E Specialist, Skills/Livelihoods Specialist, Financial Management Specialist, and Safeguards Specialist. However, it is being emphasized that counterpart procurement staff need to be assigned to work as counterpart to the TST so that further capacity is built up in the ministry in the field of procurement. To mitigate the risks identified in the procurement assessment, an action plan was agreed as follow:
Table 9: Procurement Risk Mitigation Action Plan
Risk Risk mitigation measures Responsibility Proposed Completion
Date
1 The capacity at MoAFCRD to execute procurement of the project is limited
Technical Support Team (TST) will include one contracted Procurement Specialist.
MoAFCRD Effectiveness
2 Possible lack of knowledge to stakeholders involved in procurement and related activities about various aspects of procurement of the project.
Preparation of Project Operation Manual (POM) which will include the procurement section clearly describing procurement arrangement, role and responsibility, procurement methods etc.
MoAFCRD Effectiveness
3 The IPPDR does not identify MoAFCRD as procuring entity. Except MoFEP all other agency have to apply to MoFEP for designation as procuring entity.
The MoAFCRD will have to obtain the Procuring Entity status after complying with requirements
MoAFCRD Effectiveness
4 Lack of designated procurement counterpart staff at MoAFCRD shall hinder transfer of knowledge
MoAFCRD shall ensure continuous availability of qualified counterpart staff to work alongside the contracted procurement specialist.
MoAFCRD Effectiveness
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52. Simplified Procurement Plan: The Borrower has developed a simplified procurement plan as per requirement of OP/OB 10.00 indicating procurements to be carried out over the first 18 months of the project. The procurement plan consisted of the procurement methods or consultant selection methods, the need for pre-qualification, estimated costs, prior review requirements and shall be agreed between the borrower and the World Bank at negotiations. The procurement plan would be updated at least annually, or more frequently as required, to reflect the actual project implementation needs and improvements in institutional capacity.
53. Threshold for each method of Procurement/Selection and for Prior Review: The recommended methods of procurement/selection and the prior review thresholds for the project would be as given below. The World Bank’s prior review requirements are stated in Appendix 1 to the Guidelines for Procurement and Appendix 1 to Guidelines for Selection and Employments of the Consultants. All Terms of Reference (TORs) regardless of contract amount shall be subject to the World Bank’s Prior review.
A. Procurement of Goods, Works and Non-Consulting Services:
Table 10: Procurement Methods and Thresholds for Goods, Works and Non-Consulting Services
Procurement Method Threshold (US$) Comment 1. ICB (Works) 5,000,000 Equivalent or more 2. ICB (Goods and non-consulting
services) 500,000 Equivalent or more
3. NCB (Works) 5,000,000 Less than 4. NCB (Goods and non-consulting
services) 500,000 Less than
5. Shopping (Works) 250,000 Equivalent or less 6. Shopping (Goods and non-consulting
services) 100,000 Equivalent or less
7 Direct contracting Any value 8 Procurement from UN agencies
(UNOPS) Any value
Table 11: Prior Review Thresholds for Goods, Works and Non-Consulting Services
Procurement Method Prior Review Threshold (US$)
Comments
1. ICB (Goods, Works and Non-Consultant Services)
All Contracts
2. NCB (Goods and Non-consulting services)
500,000 Equivalent or more
3. NCB (Works) 3,000,000 Equivalent or more 4 Direct Contracting (Goods, Works
and Non-Consultant Services) All above US$1,000
5 UN Agencies All contracts 6 Shopping (Goods, Works) None All shopping of goods and works
shall be subject of post review.
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B. Selection of Consultants:
Table 12: Selection Methods and Thresholds for Consultants
Selection Method Threshold (US$)
Comments
1. QCBS, QBS, FBS, LCS
Any value Selection Method would depend on nature and complexity of assignment.
2. CQS 500,000 Equivalent or less 3 Individual
consultant Any value
4 SSS Any value
Table 13: Prior Review Threshold for Consultants
Selection Method Prior Review Threshold (US$) Comments 1. Competitive Methods (Firms) 200,000 Equivalent or more 2. Individual consultant selection 100,000 Equivalent or more 3 Single Source (Firms)/Individuals US$1,000 Equivalent or more
54. Frequency of procurement supervision: In addition to the prior review supervision to be carried out by the World Bank, the World Bank would conduct an annual post review of a sample of 20 percent of all post review contracts finalized under the project
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Table 14: Simplified Procurement Plan Ref. No.
Contract Description
Estimated Cost – US$
Procurement/ Selection Method
Review by Bank (Prior or Post)
Expected Bid/Proposal Submission Deadline
Expected Contract Completion Date
1 Component 2- Public Works
1.1 Selection of Implementing Partner NGO –State 1
3,000,000 SSS/QCBS Prior September 2013 June 2017
1.2 Selection of Implementing Partner NGO –State 2
3,000,000 SSS/QCBS Prior September 2013 June 2017
1.3 Selection of Implementing Partner NGO –State 3
3,000,000 SSS/QCBS Prior September 2013 June 2017
2 Component 3- skills development
2.1 Selection of a consulting firm/ NGO – for State 1 and 2
150,000 SSS Prior September 2013 Dec 2014
Selection of a consulting firm/ NGO – for State 3 and Juba
150,000 SSS Prior September 2013 Dec 2014
3 Component -1
3.1 Goods
3.2 Vehicles – Five 4WD Double Cabin Pick-ups- Two for center and one each for the three states
175,000 Procurement from UN agencies- UNOPS
Prior October 2013 December 2013
3.3 Motor Bikes – 3 (one each for the three rural Counties)
12,000 Shopping Post October 2013 December 2013
3.4 IT and other office equipment for TST (Desk top Computers; Lap top Computers; Laser Jet Printer/Copier)
70,000 Shopping Post October 2013 December 2013
4 Consultants – Technical Support Team
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4.1 Project Coordinator- 4 years 288,000 IC Prior July 2013 June 2017
4.2 Procurement Specialist- 2 years 288,000 IC Prior July 2013 December 2015
4.3 Financial Management Specialist - 4 years 288,000 IC Prior July 2013 June 2017
4.5 M&E specialist- 4 years 288,000 IC Prior July 2013 June 2017
4.6 Safeguard Specialist-4 years 288,000 IC Prior July 2013 June 2017
4.7 Skills/vocational training /Livelihood specialist - 4 years
288,000 IC Prior July 2013 June 2017
4.8 State coordinator 1 for - 4 years 192,000 IC Prior July 2013 June 2017
4.9 State coordinator 2- for - 4 years 192,000 IC Prior July 2013 June 2017
4.10 State coordinator 3 – for - 4 years 192,000 IC Prior July 2013 June 2017
4.11 County coordinator 1- for - 4 years 120,000 IC Prior July 2013 June 2017
4.12 County coordinator 2 – for - 4 years 120,000 IC Prior July 2013 June 2017
4.13 County coordinator 3- for - 4 years 120,000 IC Prior July 2013 June 2017
4.14 Consultancy services to develop an MIS that can be used for Beneficiary registry and capturing other project information
400,000 SSS/CQS Prior July 2013 July 2014
4.15 Consultancy services for development Monitoring and Evaluation system
150,000 SSS/CQS Prior July 2013 July 2014
4.16 Design and testing of Computerized FM system 80,000 IC Post TBD TBD
4.17 External Audit Service 80,000 TBD TBD TBD TBD
Note: 1. All IC above 1.5 years shall be contracted for 1 year at a time. In prior review cases of IC, extensions after completion of initial 12 months of successful service with the same
existing terms and conditions shall be subject to post review. 2. The firm for the external audit service (4.17) will be selected in association with other projects. The method of selection and prior review requirement will be decided subsequently.
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Environmental (including safeguards) 55. The nature and location of individual sub-projects under the Public Works of the proposed project would be small scale, labor intensive and cannot be determined in advance at this stage. Based on the consultations during preparation, the indicative activities are listed in Table 1. The environmental and social safeguard issues are related to the proposed sub projects under both the public works and skills development components to be financed by the project. However, the actual activities cannot be determined at this stage, since the identification would be based on the priorities selected by the communities at the Boma level from the indicative list of activities. The envisaged activity interventions are likely to generate potential positive and negative environmental and social impacts. The implementation of the anticipated activities could also potentially result in adverse impacts on the biophysical and social environment; however given the expected nature and scale of the activities, the negative impacts are likely to be localized, temporary, and easily mitigated through sensible construction management techniques, and diligent management practices.
56. The proposed Project is categorized under environmental Category B-Partial assessment and triggered the World Bank safeguards policies (OP/BP 4.01) Environmental Assessment, (OP 4.09) Pest Management, (OP/BP4.11) Physical Cultural Resources, (OP/BP 4.10) Indigenous Peoples, and (OP/BP 7.50) International Waterways.
57. The proposed sub-projects related to water sector activities and flood protection structures to be supported under component 2 are likely to have impacts on the nearby surface and ground water sources within the Nile basin. These activities would be limited to the rehabilitation and improvement of the existing water delivery schemes and structures. Hand dug wells to be constructed under the proposed Project would be shallow in depth, and the amount of water to be extracted would be negligible. Based on the nature and scale of the proposed project and expecting that the activities would be limited to on-going water schemes and not adversely change the quality or quantity of water flows to the other riparian countries, exception to riparian notification under paragraph 7(a) of OP7.50 is applicable to the proposed project. Therefore, the team sought guidance and, on May 1, 2013, received approval from the Africa Region Vice President for an exception to riparian notification.
58. In order to avoid and/or minimize the potential impacts that would result from the implementation of the proposed sub projects, the ESSAF for South Sudan discussed by the Board on March 28, 2013, is applicable to the proposed project. Annex 6 provides more details. The ESSAF establishes a mechanism to determine and assess the potential environmental and social impacts of activities, and sets out appropriate mitigation, monitoring and institutional measures to be taken during implementation and operation of the activities to avoid and/or minimize the expected environmental and social impacts to an acceptable levels. It also includes a basic environmental and social screening (a simple form/checklist) that would be applied by Implementing partners, TST, core team at various level during the identification of activities. ESSAF provides guidance on “chance find” procedures for implementing partner and other stakeholders to be used for any construction activities supported by the project. ESMPs for portfolio of projects and an IPMP would be prepared during the first year of implementation. Any activities that would have significant negative impacts on Natural habitats and forests and require land acquisition would be on a ‘negative list’, to be found in the POM, and be excluded
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from implementation.
59. The assessment on the capacity of the implementing agencies and other stakeholders for management and implementation of environmental and social safeguards instruments (ESSAF, ESMP and IPMP) revealed that the existing capacity at State, County and Payam level is very low. To address this shortcoming the project would recruit a Safeguards Officer as a member of the TST to oversee the safeguards implementation in the project. In addition, the government would be required to assign a safeguards officer both at state and county level.
Social safeguards
60. The key social risks to the project emerge from the elite capture of resources and decision making processes, the marginalization of vulnerable sections, especially women and youth, civil war and displacement that has exacerbated the paucity of livelihood/productive skills, resources and infrastructure and food security. With its focus on the women and youth from the poorest households, and a community-based planning and implementation process, the proposed Project seeks to identify, acknowledge and address these key social risks.
• Community-based targeting: A vulnerability-based and conflict sensitive approach would underpin the planning and decision making process. The project would facilitate and strengthen the engagement of communities in the identification of beneficiary households to ensure proper and sensitive targeting that the project would target its interventions better and reach the households that are at the greatest risk of food insecurity and hunger. This bottom-up planning process would enable the poor to not only lead the decision making process but also the allocation of project resources.
• Gender mainstreaming: While both men and women and boys and girls from poor households face disadvantages, the situation of women is particularly vulnerable owing to illiteracy, lack of voice and poor access to livelihood resources. The proposed project would target young women in the age group of 18-30, but also beyond clearly acknowledging the disproportionate burden on women of domestic and productive roles. The Skills Development component would focus on both traditional and emerging areas of livelihoods for women while giving due consideration to the location/duration/mode of training recognizing the social, cultural and economic barriers women could face in availing these opportunities. Further, the activities under public works component would respond to women’s priorities and have activities conducive for women.
• Youth: Given that half of the South Sudanese population is under the age of eighteen and 72 percent under the age of thirty, and creation of employment and opportunities would be key to mitigating potential conflict or violence from erupting, the proposed project is specifically focused on youth. Uneducated and unskilled youth would find employment under the Public Works while educated youth would benefit from skills development. The combination of livelihoods related skills along with life skills, entrepreneurship and financial literacy would provide youth with access to productive self-employment and/or job opportunities.
• Public Works: With a focus on infrastructure that would contribute to enhancing productivity of resources, value addition of produce and/or reaching markets; the public works are expected to bridge the infrastructure deficit for the poor. Given that these would be decided in a participatory and transparent process, this is likely to significantly enhance
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not only the utilization of the infrastructure but also the operation and maintenance, thus ensuring sustainability of works and infrastructure.
• Social Accountability: A robust communication strategy would underpin the project. Information on the project objectives, proposed interventions, eligibility criteria, roles and responsibilities of stakeholders, accountability nodes, and feedback and grievance mechanisms, would all help in preventing mis-targeting, capture of resources, or the marginalization of the vulnerable. All operation related information like beneficiary lists; sub projects proposals and budgets, implementation progress, work measurement and payments; selection and assignment of youth for skills development training would be available for at all levels. Beneficiary Assessment and regular monitoring of project processes and impacts would advise project implementation.
61. OP/BP 4.12 on Involuntary Resettlement is not triggered. In the context of South Sudan, where land is predominantly held under customary land tenure arrangements and where population pressure on land is very low (13 persons per sq. km), access to land is not a major issue. Land for construction of facilities would be obtained either: (a) through documented voluntary community donations of land arrived at through local consultation; or (b) by using available government land that is free of encroachments, squatters or other encumbrances, and has been authorized for project use by the authorities. However in urban areas, where the pressure on land is more and land free of encumbrances is an issue, the only public works envisaged are environmental sanitation activities that do not require any land. Any activity requiring land acquisition under eminent domain, which would trigger OP 4.12 on Involuntary Settlement, would be on a ‘negative list’.
62. OP/BP 4.10 on Indigenous Peoples is triggered, as analysis by World Bank and other experts confirms that the overwhelming majority of people in the proposed Project area are expected to meet the requirements of OP 4.10. Per the requirements of OP/BP 4.10, when Indigenous Peoples are the sole or the overwhelming majority of direct project beneficiaries, the elements of an Indigenous Peoples Plan (IPP) should be included in the overall project design; a separate IPP is not required. The proposed project has as its building block a local participatory planning process that aims at including all vulnerable sub-groups (whether ethnic/tribal/kinship minority groups, women, youth and displaced) in consultations to agree on the poor and vulnerable households, and the activities to be implemented under the Public Works component. The SNSDP has a particular emphasis on identifying and reaching the most vulnerable social groups and ensuring direct support to them. This process embeds the basic principles of OP 4.10 of a free, prior, and informed consultation leading to broad community support for the project.
63. Consequently, the design of the proposed program would support the objectives and outcomes of the policy by (a) including as an early activity in the participatory county planning process a mapping of ethnic tribal groups with identification of particularly vulnerable minority groups and the nature of their vulnerabilities, so that measures can be taken to ensure their inclusion in the planning process; (b) applying the principle of “equitable access to benefits” across all vulnerable sub-groups (whether ethnic/tribal/kinship minority groups) and with a specific focus on women and all youth within the county; (c) monitoring delivery of equitable benefits across ethnic groups with particular emphasis on the vulnerable (e.g. by accountability arrangements including dissemination and display of beneficiary list, activities selected, transfers and direct support provided; and (d) establishing a simple grievance mechanism that is accessible
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to the different groups.
64. Responsibilities for safeguard screening, management and mitigation. The project would clarify and reinforce responsibilities for implementing and monitoring the environmental and social safeguard aspects, and provide technical support to the implementing partners and other stakeholders on the implementation of the ESSAF and other environmental and social safeguard instruments. MoAFCRD, MoLPSHRD, Core team at various level (County, Payam), and implementing agencies are responsible for management of safeguards. MoAFCRD is responsible for the coordination of overall activities under component 2 at state, county and payam levels including issues related to environmental and social safeguards management and environmental sustainability. The implementing institutions have very limited competence or capacity to support or supervise environmental and social safeguards management activities. The program would therefore engage a Safeguards Officer in the TST to: (a) oversee safeguards implementation in SNSDP; (b) liaise with national and state environmental ministries on a regular basis; (c) ensure compliance with ESSAF and other safeguard instruments; (d) build capacity for the state and county level Safeguards Focal Points; (e) prepare and implement ESMPs, IPMP and other safeguards instruments as required; (f) raise awareness and build capacity of various stakeholders at the state, county and payam levels; and (g) develop training plan, material and provide training at various level for stakeholders.
65. The Government would also assign Safeguards Focal Points for each state and county, with responsibility for providing technical support to the county, payam and boma levels and who would regularly follow up and monitor the implementation of activities to guarantee compliance with the ESMPs and ESSAF. Safeguard Focal Points at state level would work in collaboration with State Ministry/Directorate of Environment to manage the environmental and social safeguard issues in the project. The Safeguard Focal Points in collaboration with implementing partners at state level would have the following responsibilities: (a) following safeguards issues and concerns; (b) applying screening checklists to activities; (c) conducting environmental and social management activities and ensuring sound implementation of ESSAF; (d) be responsible to implement and monitor the environmental and safeguard tools (e.g. ESMPs) as required; (e) providing training and capacity building activities to government staffs and to community members at state, county, payam and boma levels; (f) conducting regular supervision; and (g) preparing progress reports. The Safeguard Focal Point at state level would also liaise with the government and World Bank regarding environmental and social safeguard issues, and would play a lead role in increasing the level of awareness on environmental management at county, payam and boma levels, providing training and capacity building to staff in state line ministries and other implementing partners.
66. Capacity Building and Monitoring of Safeguard Framework Implementation. As part of the capacity building arrangements made for implementation of the proposed operation, the project has proposed environmental and social Safeguard Focal Points at state and county levels and a Safeguards Officer at the TST. To assist in the capacity building and provide subsequent guidance and review of the ESSAF and ESAMP application, the World Bank environmental and social safeguard specialists in the project task team would provide guidance to the implementing partners at various levels. The project would also ensure responsibilities of implementing and monitoring the environmental and social safeguard aspects of the project, provide training and technical support to the MoAFCRD, MoGCSW, MoCYS, MoLPSHRD, Core team at various
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level (County, Payam), implementing partners and other line ministries staffs and create awareness among communities and relevant stakeholders on sound environmental management practices and implementation of the ESSAF and ESMP. During supervision of these operations, the World Bank would assess the implementation of the ESSAF and ESMP and recommend additional strengthening, if required.
67. Consultation and Disclosure. The ESMP would be shared with MoFEP, MoAFCRD, MoGCSW, MoCYS, MoLPSHRD, Core team at various level (County, Payam), line ministries, communities, concerned NGOs and other development partners. The ESSAF provides guidance on the approach to be taken during project implementation for the screening and design of activities and planning of mitigation measures. The public notice concerning the ESMP would be published in-country and would be made available to the public during implementation.
68. Implementing agencies would consult participating communities and local NGOs on the project’s environmental and social aspects on an ongoing basis, and would take their views into account. Implementing agencies would initiate these consultations as early as possible, and for meaningful consultations, would provide relevant material in a timely manner prior to consultation, in a form and language(s) that are understandable and accessible to the groups being consulted
Monitoring & Evaluation 69. The proposed Project would emphasize accurate and reliable monitoring and evaluation (M&E) at specific intervals in order to measure achievement toward the PDO. Annex 1 presents the results framework for the SNSDP including indicators, data sources, frequency of data collection, and targets and baselines. The M&E system adopted for the collection of this data would be multi-dimensional, including regular monitoring of Project activities and outputs, the impact of these outputs, and beneficiary feedback on and satisfaction with the Project.
70. Monitoring: The TST together with government staff would have primary responsibility for the regular monitoring of activities and outputs of their respective components to assess the efficiency, effectiveness, and progress toward the Project’s key and intermediate indicators. Data collected would include: number of persons engaged in temporary work, number of persons receiving cash transfers, type of projects selected and completed, number of persons participating in training activities, as well as demographic information on the Project beneficiaries. It would be collected through the beneficiary registration processes and supervision checklists administered by the TST together with government staff and IPs.
71. The MIS would be designed based on existing systems, lessons learned from previous interventions, as well as technical assistance from M&E specialists. The MIS would reflect the limited capacity context of South Sudan and, therefore, provide a balance between the collection of quality data and simplicity in design and technical requirements. Since the proposed Project also aims to build national capacity for the coordination of social protection programming at a broader level, the MIS for each component would be compatible to facilitate a Project-wide MIS maintained by the PSC; ICT would be leveraged to develop such an appropriate MIS.
72. Monitoring at each stage would identify any problems that might arise during the project
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cycle and would make it possible to promptly adopt solutions. The World Bank team would conduct regular supervision missions and assess compliance with the implementation guidelines (as outlined in the POM), including adherence to financial management and procurement procedures and compliance with social and environmental safeguards. Internal World Bank Implementation Support Reports (ISRs) would be used to alert the World Bank’s management to the project’s performance and inform their decisions accordingly. Also, the midterm review (MTR) would provide a comprehensive assessment of the proposed Project’s achievements toward the PDO and the effectiveness of its implementation arrangements. Spot checks of various project implementation sites would also complement the regular monitoring process.
73. Independent evaluation: An independent impact evaluation would be conducted for participants and controls. Its primary purpose would be to assess the labor market outcomes of skills training for the graduates, controls shortly following graduation from the program, and outcomes on socioeconomic status of beneficiaries of the temporary employment through public works
74. Beneficiary assessment: Community Scorecard exercise would be used to conduct the beneficiary assessment. This assessment would complement the more quantitative data from the MIS and impact evaluation by soliciting feedback from beneficiary households and communities on the Project’s impact and implementation. It would be a critical tool in analyzing the Project’s overall effectiveness in achieving the PDO. The broad objectives of the assessment would include: understanding the Project’s success in targeting poor and vulnerable populations; assessing the nature and degree of beneficiary satisfaction with the Project activities; and ascertaining beneficiary attitudes toward the central and state Government and NGO implementation of the Project.
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Annex 4: Operational Risk Assessment Framework (ORAF)
SOUTH SUDAN: Safety Net and Skills Development (P143915)
.
Risks .
Project Stakeholder Risks
Stakeholder Risk Rating Moderate
Risk Description: Risk Management:
Borrower/Government Relations: Government may object to the proposed limited coverage of the project based on equity concerns.
A continuous process of engagement and consultations with governments and other key stakeholders to involve them in the preparation process and to strengthen the consensus on the rationale for not starting the project at the same time in all states and counties. A phasing strategy that will target states and counties not currently covered, or slated for coverage, by other Government, Bank, and development partner programs, will be explored.
Resp: Client
Status: In Progress
Stage: Both
Recurrent: Due Date: Frequency:
Capacity Rating High
Risk Description: Risk Management:
Very limited capacity for design, implementation and M&E of social protection programs, particularly very weak government capacity below state level.
Capacity for design and implementation of social safety net programs exists within the UN agencies and the NGO community. Since 2008, MoAFCRD and MoGCSW have been implementing projects in partnership with NGOs and during the implementation period some capacity has been developed within the two ministries. There are PIUs within the ministries staffed with consultants and local staff assigned by government. The World Bank would undertake institutional capacity assessment of the PIUs including their financial management, procurement, and M&E capacity. The detailed institutional arrangement for the project implementation would be informed by the findings of the capacity assessment. Capacity gaps identified by the assessment would be addressed through targeted capacity building measures. The project would strengthen these PIUs particularly the capacity and role of government staff with the ultimate objective of the government staff taking full implementation responsibility and the PIU mainstreamed in to regular government structure. The government would assign local staff to the PIUs and the local staff would be mentored by consultants.
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Resp: Both
Status: In Progress
Stage: Both
Recurrent: Due Date: Frequency:
Governance Rating High
Risk Description: Risk Management:
Given the weak overall governance structure in South Sudan, there could be risks associated with financial management and procurement and accountability mechanisms in targeting the right beneficiaries.
(i) The PIUs would be staffed with qualified Financial Management and Procurement specialists and robust financial and social accountability mechanisms would be incorporated in the design of the project. (ii) Community and local government representatives would be involved in the targeting of beneficiaries and selection of public work activities, and would oversee cash transfers to beneficiaries. Responsive and accessible feedback and grievance mechanisms in the form of community committees would be established to respond to and address any grievances that would be raised. (iii) The Project would adopt a system of beneficiary identification cards, if possible based on biometric data, to ensure the cash transfer would reach the intended beneficiaries.
Resp: Both
Status: Not Yet Due
Stage: Both
Recurrent: Due Date: Frequency:
Project Risks
Design Rating High
Risk Description: The project design may be complicated given the weak government capacity to monitor and evaluate Project implementation. The cash transfer activities under the Project present a fiduciary risk, particularly given the low capacity of both the public sector and private service providers, such as commercial banks and mobile phone companies.
Risk Management:
The project has three components, including two sub-components focused on capacity and systems building, and the types of activities that would be implemented are very simple in nature. The project would build up on successful activities that have been implemented by the MoGCSW and MoAFCRD and their partners. This would include partnership between Government and NGOs which have presence on the ground and capacity to implement the planned project activities. Setting up new implementation arrangements may take too much time and may delay benefits delivery to the target population in time.
Resp: Both
Status: Not Yet Due
Stage: Both
Recurrent: Due Date: Frequency:
Risk Management:
The Project would leverage existing NGO capacity to facilitate transparent cash transfers to beneficiaries. The Project also would rely on ICT innovations to manage beneficiary payments and a redress mechanism would allow for direct and open feedback from project beneficiaries in the case of any questions regarding payment processes.
Resp: Status: Stage: Recurrent: Due Date: Frequency:
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Both Not Yet Due Both
Social and Environmental Rating Moderate
Risk Description: Risk Management:
(i) Public works designed and executed under the project may not comply with the World Bank’s safeguard policies leading to adverse social and environmental impacts; (ii) Improper beneficiary targeting could lead to exclusion of vulnerable households; (iii) Cash transfers may be subject to leakages and rent seeking; and (iv) the process for public works selection may be captured and exacerbate conflict.
A national ESSAF discussed by the Board on march 28, 2013 is applicable to this project and would guide the social and environmental safeguards management under the project. (i) Activities are expected to have positive benefits; most would be small-scale in nature and environmental impacts can be mitigated through good construction practices; (ii) Activities requiring involuntary land acquisition and resettlement or affecting cultural heritage would be excluded; (iii) the ESSAF outlines simple procedures for environmental & social screening of proposed public works ; (iv) Environmental and Social Management Plans (ESMP) would be prepared for portfolio of projects during implementation; (v) Per the requirements of OP/BP 4.10, since Indigenous Peoples in South Sudan are the overwhelming majority of direct project beneficiaries, the elements of an Indigenous Peoples Plan (IPP) would be included in the overall project design; a separate IPP would not be prepared; (vi) A carefully designed beneficiary targeting mechanism that builds on country specific and global experience would be put in place; (vii) A social and conflict sensitive planning approach, developed under the LGSD, would be adapted under the project for identification of beneficiaries as well as public works, so as to benefit a majority population including the vulnerable groups and/or help mitigate conflict; (viii) A responsive and accessible feedback and grievance mechanisms in the form of community committees would be established to respond / address any grievances that would be raised; (ix) Appropriate staffing of implementing agencies with social and environmental staff and adequate training of these staff; and (x) Effective implementation and close monitoring of safeguards during implementation.
Resp: Both
Status: In Progress
Stage: Both
Recurrent: Due Date: Frequency:
Program and Donor Rating Low
Risk Description: In principle donors have shown support to the project idea but no commitment to finance the project so far. To date, donor financing of social protection has focused primarily on
Risk Management:
The World Bank team would continue to engage with the donors to ensure donor support to the project.
Resp: Bank
Status: In Progress
Stage: Preparation
Recurrent: Due Date: Frequency:
Risk Management:
The Project’s component 1 provides technical assistance to the Government’s development of a National Social Protection Policy, which, among other objectives, would adopt a more developmental approach to social protection in South Sudan.
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emergency, humanitarian interventions, rather than providing a more sustainable social safety net for targeted households.
Resp: Bank
Status: In Progress
Stage: Both
Recurrent:
Due Date: Frequency:
Delivery Monitoring and Sustainability
Rating High
Risk Description: Risk Management:
Weak capacity of MoAFCRD and MoGCSW to monitor the works under the project may lead to the failure of proper implementation of the project and poor quality of output. Previous World Bank-funded projects with PIU arrangements in these two ministries have had limited impact on sustainable capacity building.
As mentioned above the project has a component that would address the capacity gap that would be identified within MoAFCRD and MoGCSW. The design of this component reflects lessons learned in previous projects and would therefore establish a common Technical Support Team (TST) to provide a strong project management support to ministerial staff assigned by Government to work as counterparts to the TST. In addition, the Technical Assistance component would help Government to develop a coherent National Social Protection Policy that would ensure the sustainability of benefits from the project.
Resp: Both
Status: Not Yet Due
Stage: Implementation
Recurrent: Due Date: Frequency:
Overall Risk
Implementation Risk Rating: High
Risk Description: The project design envisages increasing substantially the involvement and ownership of government and given the limited capacity of government ministries implementation will be challenging, hence implementation risk is rated high.
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Annex 5: Implementation Support Plan
SOUTH SUDAN: Safety Net and Skills Development Project
Strategy and Approach for Implementation Support
Implementation Support Plan
1. The Implementation Support Plan (ISP) for the proposed project is based on lessons learned from the implementation of past and ongoing projects in South Sudan and other countries as well as on the proposed project’s specific design, complexity, challenges and risks. The ISP aims at ensuring an effective and timely implementation of the mitigation measures designed to ensure inclusion and mitigate conflict at community level during implementation and to deter the chances of corruption and fraud and ensure the achievement of the project’s development objective. The team is aware of the implementation risks faced and consequently of the need for enhanced supervision and would work to ensure adequate staffing for proper implementation support. In addition to ensuring the proper implementation of the project as designed, the ISP would also focus on building the capacity of the client and project implementation partners.
2. Team composition: The main implementation support team would consist of World Bank staff and consultants based in the field and Washington DC office. The team would be composed of one field-based Task Team Leader (TTL), country based staff (procurement, financial management, environmental safeguards, gender, communication and team assistant), regional offices based staff (public works, social protection and M&E) and Washington based staff (social development, social protection and ICT). The team members would be responsible for the implementation support of project specific activities in their areas of expertise.
3. Frequency of implementation support: In addition to a regular monitoring of project implementation progress by field based staff, there would be at least two annual formal full supervision missions per year during which project sites would be visited. Country based staff and consultants would conduct field visits to project sites as frequently as needed. The supervision task team would develop, together with the client and other project implementation partners (i.e. NGOs), lists of actions required to ensure a good implementation of the project’s activities, with a particular focus on the governance, fiduciary and safeguards issues and participation of stakeholders.
4. The project implementation plan would include a robust communication campaign to ensure that there is widespread understanding of the project, its objectives, the target group it hopes to reach, and the criteria and procedures for participation.
5. Implementation support budget. To ensure a strong and continuous implementation support effort, especially during the first two full years of implementation, a minimum of US$250,000 per year supervision budget would be required to cover World Bank staff, consultants and travel expenses.
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Main focus in terms of support to implementation during:
Time Focus Skills Needed Resource Estimate
First twelve months
Establishing essential systems for the project including -Recruitment of TST - Capacity building for system development, - Capacity building in procurement, financial management, and safeguards - Establishment of bank accounts, FM, MIS and M&E systems - Information campaign -Contracting of implementing partner NGOs -Roll out the project implementation to selected states, counties, payams and bomas
Core technical expertise on: - Procurement - Financial Management - Environmental and Social Safeguards -Monitoring and evaluation (including the use of ICT technologies) - Management information systems and registry of beneficiaries - Institutional capacity building -Grievances redress systems. - Skills development and livelihoods
US$250,000
Skills Mix Required
Skills Needed Number of Staff Weeks
Number of Trips
Comments
Task Team Leader 12 2 Based in the region Social Protection Specialist 8 2 Based in the headquarters Procurement Specialist 6 NA Based in the region Financial Management Specialist 6 NA Based in the region Environmental Specialist 6 NA Based in the region Social Specialist 6 2 Based in headquarters Skills Development Specialist 6 2 Based in headquarters Public Works Specialist 6 2 Based in region Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist 6 2 Based in the region Consultant (targeting) 6 1 Based in headquarters Consultant (MIS) 6 1 Based in headquarters Team Assistant 6 - Based in headquarters Team Assistant 6 NA Based in the field
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Annex 6: Environmental and Social Screening and Assessment Framework (ESSAF)
SOUTH SUDAN: Safety Net and Skills Development Project
I. Introduction
1. The ESSAF for South Sudan was discussed by the World Bank’s Executive Directors on March 28, 2013 and is applicable to SNSDP. The ESSAF anticipates and documents the entire scope of environmental and social screening as well as the basic principles of good environmental and social practice and diligent management practice for all lending operations during the South Sudan ISN period. The ESSAF has been prepared in line with World Bank operational policies and procedures for investment operations and the guidance note for crises and emergency operations for application of World Bank safeguard and disclosure policies. The ESSAF’s objectives, guiding principles, anticipated project potential positive and negative environmental and social impacts and the respective enhancement and mitigation measures to be taken based on the project’s components; would guide the implementation of SNSDP.
2. In addition, the Framework outlines an approach to deal with the environmental and social impact of sub-projects interventions that would be identified later. Of particular relevance to SNSDP is the guidance on activities related to construction/rehabilitation of public market places and other services, small scale surface irrigation schemes, construction/rehabilitation of small water harvesting structures, hand-dug well, soil and water conservation, and other related activities. The ESSAF encompasses checklists, general guidelines for environmental and social management plan, pest management plan, and matrices for identified environmental and social impacts in accordance with project activities.
II. SNSDP
3. Of the three components of the proposed project, only activities under Component 2 – Public Works and Component 3 - Skills Development, are likely to generate negative environmental and social impacts. The project has triggered five World Bank safeguards policies - Environmental Assessment (OP/BP 4.01), Pest Management (OP 4.09), Physical Cultural Resources (OP/BP4.11), Indigenous Peoples (OP/BP 4.10) and Project on international waterways (OP/BP 7.50). The environmental category of the proposed project is Category B and the potential impacts are likely to be small and localized and can be easily mitigated by implementing the guidance under the ESSAF.
III. Environmental and Social Screening and Assessment Framework 4. The ESSAF would guide the TST under the MoAFCRD, key ministries and IPs in screening all the activities for their likely social and environmental impacts, identifying documentation and preparation requirements and prioritizing the investments that include adequate mitigation, management and monitoring measures to comply with World Bank safeguard policies.
5. OP 4.01 Environmental Assessment. Given the anticipated small scale and nature of the activities under Components 2 and 3 of the SNSDP, the negative environmental and social impacts are likely to be localized, temporary, and easily mitigated through sensible construction
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management techniques, and diligent management practices. The project is categorized under environmental category “B”. The guidance provided under the ESSAF is used for activity screening, addressing potential environmental and social concerns, and planning of mitigation measures. During project implementation, appropriate safeguards documents (ESMP and IPMP) would be prepared. Given the relatively moderate environmental and social impacts of the activity, umbrella Environmental and Social Management Plans (ESMPs) would be prepared during project implementation for portfolio of activities i.e. gravel roads, hand dug wells, etc. All sub projects with potential adverse impacts would be checked against a list of negative attributes to avoid any investments in sensitive areas, and a screening for environmental and social impacts would be conducted prior to sub-project implementation. For all sub projects that involve the rehabilitation and upgrading of construction and civil works (including agricultural market places, water harvesting schemes, public roads), the implementing agency would apply appropriate environmental standards through inclusion of standard environmental codes of practice (ECOP) in operational documents. Review and oversight of any major rehabilitation and improvement works would be by specialists. Further, provisions would be made for implementation of environmentally and socially sound options for disposal of debris or drain spoils and for satisfactory institutional arrangements for monitoring effective implementation.
6. OP 4.04 Natural Habitat. The proposed project does not include any activities that would require triggering OP 4.04. Any activity resulting in an impact on the Natural Habitats would be on a ‘negative list’ for implementation.
7. OP 4.09 Pest Management. The proposed sub projects under components 2 and 3 (Public Works and Skills Development activities) among other things, target to enhance productivity of agriculture, animal husbandry and related activities. This is expected to lead to livelihood improvement through activities such as improved agricultural practices, use of new improved seeds, nursery site establishment and management, re-vegetation and/or afforestation. These activities would encompass the use of chemical and fertilizers and result in subsequent environmental and health risks and are expected to pose risks of pest management (OP 4.09) safeguard policies. In order to offset or minimize the anticipated impacts, the project would use the ESSAF to guide the management of any potential adverse environmental impacts resulting from the purchase and use of pesticides during project implementation. Based on the ESSAF’s guidance, an Integrated Pest Management Plan (IPMP) would be prepared during the first year of project implementation, consulted upon and would be publicly disclosed in Country and at the World Bank’s InfoShop 90 days after effectiveness (as required under OP/BP 8.00).
8. OP 4.10 Indigenous Peoples. OP/BP 4.10 on Indigenous Peoples is triggered and is applicable to this project, as analysis by World Bank and other experts confirms that the majority or all people in the proposed project area meet the definition of Indigenous Peoples under the policy. Per the requirements of OP/BP 4.10, when Indigenous Peoples are the sole or the overwhelming majority of direct project beneficiaries, the elements of an Indigenous Peoples Plan (IPP) should be included in the overall project design, and therefore a separate IPP is not required. The project approach and implementation process embeds the basic principles of OP 4.10 of a free, prior, and informed consultation leading to broad community support for the project through its emphasis on community-driven approach in the identification of poor and vulnerable households as beneficiaries of the project, and the identification of priority activities and skills under the public works and skills development components, respectively. The
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identification and prioritization process incorporates provisions to ensure equitable benefits and an accessible feedback and grievance redress mechanism for beneficiaries and communities.
9. OP 4.11 Physical Cultural Resources. South Sudan is a newly emerging nation and its cultural heritage resources are not yet well known. The presence of physical cultural resources (e.g. graveyards, sites of religious/ritual significance, known or unknown local structures or sites of historic or cultural importance) within the project area may not be known at this stage. The proposed operation is not expected to pose risks of damaging physical cultural resources. Nevertheless, this OP may be triggered on a precautionary basis and proposed activities would be reviewed for their potential impact on cultural property and clear procedures would be required for identification, protection of cultural property from theft, and treatment of discovered artifacts, and would be included in standard operational documents. While not damaging cultural property, activity preparation may later identify and include assistance for preservation of historic or archeological sites. Such activities may have potential impacts on previously unidentified physical cultural resources through chance finds of an archaeological nature. The ESSAF provides a clear procedure for identification, protection and treatment of archaeological artifacts discovered; these procedures would be included in the environmental and social management plan and in standard operational documents which may be encountered during siting and construction process.
10. OP 4.12 Involuntary Resettlement. The proposed project does not trigger OP 4.12. The need for involuntary resettlement or land acquisition in specific activity areas would be known during project implementation, when site-specific plans are available. Therefore activities would be screened for applicability of the resettlement policy and any activities involving involuntary resettlement or land acquisition. Any activity requiring land acquisition under eminent domain, which would trigger OP 4.12 on Involuntary Settlement, would be on a ‘negative list’ for implementation.
11. OP 4.36 Forests. The proposed project does not trigger this policy. Any activity resulting in an impact on forests or forestry would be on a ‘negative list’ for implementation.
12. OP 4.37 Safety of Dams. The proposed project would support the rehabilitation and maintenance of small flood control dykes, none of which present a safety risk. These dykes function mainly as part of an existing set of local community soil and water conservation practices. No new dams will be constructed under the project nor will any works or other project activities depend on an existing dam or the safety of an existing dam in order for the project to achieve its objective. Therefore this OP would not be triggered.
13. OP 7.50 Projects on International Waterways. The proposed sub-projects related to water sector activities (construction/rehabilitation of water points (hand dug wells, ponds), existing small scale irrigation schemes, flood protection structures etc.) to be supported under component 2 (public work) are likely to have potential negative impacts on the nearby surface and ground water sources and particularly on the Nile water. These activities are mostly limited to the rehabilitation and improvement of the existing water delivery schemes and structures. Hand dug wells to be constructed under the project would be shallow in depth, and the amount of water to be extracted would be negligible. Considering the scale and nature of the proposed sub-project and level of impacts, and the possible connection of the abstraction of groundwater by the
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project with the Nile or be part of the Upper Nile Basin, the World Bank policy OP/BP 7.50 (Projects on International Waterways) is triggered. As a general rule, OP 7.50 requires that the other Nile riparian countries be notified of the proposed Project. However, given the nature of the activities to be supported under the proposed project, the expected impacts would be very limited, localized and not expected to adversely affect and/or change the quantity and quality of water flows to other riparian countries. Therefore, the project would seek a riparian notification exception under OP 7.50 paragraph 7(a) pertains to "any ongoing schemes, projects involving additions or alterations that require rehabilitation, construction, or other changes that in the judgment of the World Bank (i) would not adversely change the quality or quantity of water flows to the other riparian; and (ii) would not be adversely affected by the other riparian possible water use. In this regard, with concurrence of the Regional Safeguards Advisor and Legal Counsel, the team sought guidance and, on May 1, 2013, received approval from the Africa Vice President for exception to riparian notification.
14. OP 7.60 Projects in Disputed Areas. The proposed project does not include any activities which are located in internationally recognized disputed areas.
IV. Safeguard Screening and Mitigation: Process, Approaches and Instruments 15. The selection, design, contracting, monitoring and evaluation of activities would be consistent with the following guidelines, codes of practice and requirements listed below. The safeguard screening and mitigation process would include:
• A list of negative characteristics rendering a proposed sub-project ineligible for support;
• Steps for screening potential environmental and social safeguards impacts, mitigation and management measures, development and implementation;
• A proposed checklist of likely environment and social impacts to be filled out for each activity or group of activities (Environmental and Social Assessment Screening Form;
• Procedures for the protection of cultural property, including the chance discovery of archaeological artifacts, unrecorded graveyards and burial sites;
• Relevant elements of the codes of practice for the prevention and mitigation of potential environmental impacts;
• A sample Environmental Safeguards procedures for Inclusion in the Technical Specifications of Contracts;
• Guidelines for preparation of Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP); and
• Guidelines for preparation of Integrated Pest Management Plan (IPMP) Principles.
(Note: For details of the safeguards screening and mitigation process, please refer to the National ESSAF)
16. While preparing sub projects under the proposed SNSDP, the ESSAF would be followed to screen environmental and social impacts and plan any required mitigation measures. The screening process and its findings as well as the proposed mitigation measures would be documented as part of the project package. The following guidelines, codes of practice and
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requirements would be followed in the selection, design and implementation of the proposed SNSDP.
• Umbrella Environmental and Social Management Plans (ESMPs) for the proposed project would need to be prepared and clearance obtained from the World Bank during the first year of the implementation period.
• The implementing agency would appoint/designate a safeguard officer under the TST, who would be responsible for application of the ESSAF within the Ministry, and also for the preparation and submission of quarterly monitoring reports to the World Bank on the screening of and the rationale for the proposed environmental categorization of each sub-project. The ESSAF provides guidelines for preparing ESMPs. While preparing the ESMP, cumulative impacts of a number of projects would also be considered. For proposed sub projects not likely to generate an impact to the nearby environment, environmental screening would be carried out with the help of the checklist provided in the ESSAF.
• All sub-projects would be screened for land acquisition and resettlement. Any activity requiring land acquisition under eminent domain, which would trigger OP 4.12 on Involuntary Settlement, would be on a ‘negative list’ for implementation.
• All sub-projects would be screened for impacts on physical cultural resources and necessary mitigation measures. The ESSAF provides a procedure for the protection of cultural property, including the chance discovery of archaeological artifacts, unrecorded graveyards and burial sites would.
• All construction contracts and operational documents for the project would include appropriate clauses to ensure effective implementation of the mitigation measures identified in ESMP/Checklist.
V. Responsibilities for Safeguard Screening and Mitigation 17. TST under the MoAFCRD has a responsibility for safeguards screening and mitigation of the proposed project. MoAFCRD would establish the TST to provide a technical support and oversee the overall project implementation including environmental and social safeguards. However, the existing capacity of the implementing institutions to implement the ESSAF and other environmental and social safeguard instruments is very limited. Therefore, the project raises awareness and provides capacity building and technical support to relevant stakeholders and communities at various levels on environmental and social safeguards management, implementation and monitoring. To strengthen the capacity on the implementation of safeguards management, the project would recruit a Safeguards Specialist in the TST under the MoAFCRD.
18. The recruited Safeguards specialist is expected to have different tasks, i.e., in addition to conducting an environmental and social management activities and ensuring sound implementation of ESSAF and other safeguard instruments, he/she would oversee safeguards implementation in the project; liaise with national and state environmental ministries on a regular basis; ensure sub projects implemented in line procedure and guideline indicated in the ESSAF and other safeguard instruments; build capacity and troubleshoot for the state and county Safeguards Focal Points; would be responsible to develop implement and monitor the
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environmental and safeguards tools (ESMP, IPMP etc.); awareness raising among the communities and relevant stakeholders at state and county level, providing training and capacity building to staffs in the MoAFCRD, MoGCSW, implementing bodies and relevant various stakeholders at the national, state, county payam levels; conducting regular supervision and preparing progress reports on implementation of national and World Bank safeguard policies and would be expected to serve as the focal person on environmental and social safeguard issues for the project at National Level.
19. The government assigns a Safeguard Focal Points for each participating states and counties to provide technical support to the county, payam and boma levels and to regularly follow up and monitor the implementation of activities to guarantee compliance with the ESSAF and other safeguards instruments. The Safeguards Focal Point at state level would also liaise with the government and World Bank regarding environmental and social safeguards issues, and would play a lead role in increasing the level of awareness on environmental management at county, payam and boma level, providing training and capacity building to staff in MoAFCRD, NGOs and other line ministries, conducting regular supervision and preparing progress reports. Before the commencement of the project, intensive training on the implementation of the ESSAF and World Bank and National safeguards policies would be provided to state and county Safeguard Focal Points to enable them to effectively act on the supervision and monitoring of the implementation of the frameworks and policies.
20. During project preparation, the government would develop and adopt a Project Operations Manual (POM) to provide a description of the community-project cycle and detail the roles and responsibilities of all actors during the cycle. The development of this POM, outlining all the steps required in the community participatory approach would be a precursor to the activities of the sub projects using the community.
VI. Capacity Building and Monitoring of Safeguard Framework Implementation 21. As part of the capacity-building to be provided for implementation of the proposed operations, and to strengthen the implementing institutions that enable to carry out Environmental and Social Safeguards management responsibilities, the project would recruit a safeguards officer that would be responsible for following safeguards issues and concerns; and in particular to apply the screening checklists for various sub-projects. The Ministry of Environment (MoE) is also responsible for reviewing ESMPs and providing guidance to the line ministries with respect to environmental management.
22. To assist in this capacity-building, and to provide subsequent guidance and review of the ESSAF’s application, the World Bank environmental and social safeguard specialists in the project task team would provide guidance to the TST and key ministries. Furthermore, to strengthen the implementing agencies and key ministries on sound implementation of safeguards management during the implementation of the proposed operation, the Safeguards Focal Points and relevant staffs of the concerned Ministries would also receive training in ESSAF’s application. The training would also include the approach and mechanisms in monitoring and verifying the project’s compliance on environmental and social safeguards. During supervision of these operations, the World Bank would assess the implementation of the ESSAF, and recommend additional strengthening, if required.
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VII. Consultation and Disclosure 23. This ESSAF has been shared with the GOSS, and will be discussed with concerned NGOs and other development partners involved in the project. The ESSAF provides guidance on the approach to be taken during project implementation for the screening and design of sub-projects and planning of mitigation measures. The Public Notice concerning the ESSAF would be disclosed in country and at the World Bank’s InfoShop and would be made available to the public prior to project implementation.
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Annex 7: Economic and Financial Analyses
SOUTH SUDAN: Safety Net and Skills Development Project 1. This Annex presents the economic and financial analysis of the project. The first section presents an economic analysis of the projects public works component, the second section covers the skills component and the third section provides a financial analysis of the overall project. The economic analyses each have several sub-sections: (a) the economic justification and rationale for the project component, (b) a justification for government involvement in achieving project objectives and (c) an assessment of the relative cost effectiveness of the component. For the public works component, a micro-simulation (section d) of impacts on poverty and consumption has also been undertaken. Conducting a full cost-benefit analysis of the components is not possible because of the uncertainties about the magnitude of long-term benefits, given the lack of data and few experiences with similar projects in the South Sudanese context. However, the immediate cost-benefit ratios can be estimated and compared with similar interventions. 2. The financial sustainability analysis uses a baseline scenario where government finances and GDP are restored to levels similar to those of 2011, prior to the shutdown of oil production and the consequent collapse of fiscal space. However, an alternate scenario without oil revenue is also presented. Under this scenario, it is assumed that the country would mainly have to depend on official development assistance (ODA) to fund social spending. 1.1 Component 2 - Public Works
A. Economic justification
3. Public works is an economically sound intervention to improve employment opportunities and reduce vulnerability of the poorest in South Sudan. Given the underdevelopment of the wage sector in South Sudan, the great majority of South Sudanese would work in non-wage activities, mostly agriculture and raising livestock, for many years to come. Policies concerning work should not focus exclusively on wage jobs and should also consider how to raise the productivity of people in their existing activities and geographic location. The proposed intervention of local public works activities in combination with complementary interventions focused on skill building seems very appropriate in the South Sudanese context.
4. A public works program can be economically justified over other social assistance mechanism (such as food aid and direct cash transfers) for several reasons. First, a public works program involves an effective mechanism community-based targeting of the poorest and vulnerable households and then self-selection in that only people who are willing to provide labor for the rate provided would participate, thus deterring leakage of benefits to the non-poor. Second, public works would prioritize activities that promote local economic opportunity, such as strengthening opportunities for movement of produce from farms to the market, which would have knock-on benefits, or “multiplier effects” in the local economy (see next paragraph). Third, the requirement of beneficiaries to carry out public works is likely to help building simple skills related to regular wage labor (even such as just showing up for a job regularly), which are lacking in South Sudan. Last, public works may also help weaken the perception that social assistance programs create dependency, as people are required to supply labor to receive the
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transfers.
5. The economic rationale for the intervention is strengthened by several potential economic “multiplier effects”, generating benefits beyond the wage transfers and public works themselves. Much trade in South Sudan is still taking the form of bartering, with 46.8 percent of households report not using cash over the last seven days in the 2009 NHBS. Of these, 34.7 percent report using barter as a replacement for cash. The introduction of cash wages would serve to increase purchasing power and stimulate demand in local markets especially in the peak hunger months. However, in such an underdeveloped market economy it is also a possibility that introduction of cash wages that stimulate the demand side without corresponding response on the supply side of the market could be inflationary (leading to rise in prices), in which case the benefits of the program would be limited. It is therefore very appropriate that the public work activities are focused on improving local productive structures and market activities, which would help the flexibility of supply responses. Moreover, the transfers are not set at a level which is likely to lead to very large increases in demand (less than 10 percent increase in consumption is expected in the micro-simulations presented in section (d)).
6. Experiences from other public works and cash transfer programs in South Sudan suggest that beneficiary households are investing cash receipts from social assistance in activities and assets that can help improve productivity. In a program conducted by Save the Children in 2010 in Baac Payam, Aweil East County, Northern Bahr el Ghazal, it was found that the most important priorities for use of cash transfer were expenditures on education, health and assets13. An evaluation of another cash transfer program implemented by ACF in Warrap State, South Sudan in 2009 finds substantial returns on investment in the cash grants, estimating them to more than 300 percent over a 3 year period14.
B. Justification for government involvement
7. Government involvement is essential to design, fund and implement a large scale public works program aimed at improving employment opportunities for the poorest and most vulnerable in South Sudan. The private sector is not yet providing many employment opportunities for the poor in South Sudan at all, due to a combination of low skills, the small size of the economy, traditional productive structures and the legacy of conflict, which has prevented the growth of the private sector. The public works intervention may be an important first step in building skills and institutions that can encourage low-skilled wage jobs in the future, and create the basis for the future job creation in the private sector.
8. Furthermore, the SNSDP would contribute to strengthening both central and local government capacity to deliver social protection services and improve the conditions of the poorest. While NGOs play an important role in implementing various social protection and service delivery programs in South Sudan, it is important to strengthen the involvement of the
13 Save the Children (2010) Improving Income and Food Security through Cash Transfers in Southern Sudan: An Evaluation of the Save the Children’s Pilot Project in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, South Sudan 14 ACF International (2010) Programme Evaluation: Cash Grant Supported Income Generating Activities Twic and Gogrial West Counties, Warrap State, Southern Sudan.
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government and for it to become the leading actor in designing and providing such services. The SNSDP, with its three complementary components, is likely to contribute to strengthen government capacity to deliver services and effectively supporting vulnerable and poor households, a key role of the state.
C. Cost effectiveness assessment
9. This section estimates the cost-effectiveness of the wage transfer in comparison to other programs. Using a methodology developed by Ravallion (1999)15, the cost-effectiveness of wage transfer calculations estimates how much it costs to transfer US$1 to beneficiaries based on three variables: (i) labor intensity; (ii) targeting performance; and (iii) net wage gain from the program, which are assessed in greater detail below. The estimates and results from comparison programs are outlined in Table 1.
10. The analyses suggest that the public works component would be effective in comparison to other similar programs in other countries in the region. The cost-effectiveness of the program is primarily due to the transfer sizes and high labor intensity, the assumed precision of the targeting, and the low opportunity cost (forgone earnings) from participating in the program. The estimated cost-effectiveness of the proposed wage transfer in the public works component is 0.48. This means that it costs US$2.07 to transfer US$1.00 in wage benefits to the intended recipients. The cost of transferring US$1 in infrastructure benefits (or other indirect capital benefits undertaken by the public works component) to the poor is US$2.59. Both these estimates compare very well to the overall cost effectiveness of similar programs, despite South Sudan’s very high operational costs. The assumptions underlying this analysis are summarized in the subsequent paragraphs and correspond to rows in Table 1.
Table 1: Estimated cost-effectiveness and comparison to other programs
South Sudan
(SNSDP)
Liberia (CfWTEP)
India (NREG)
Ethiopia (PSNP)
Bangladesh (ESG)
Niger (SNP)
Labor Intensity 0.67 0.68 0.71 0.85 0.65 0.70 Targeting Performance 0.80 0.80 0.70 0.87 0.80 0.80 Net Wage Gain 0.90 0.93 0.50 0.75 0.50 0.80 Cost-Effectiveness 0.48 0.51 0.25 0.55 0.26 0.45 Share of Indirect Benefits to the Poor 0.80 0.80 - 0.85 - 0.80 Cost-Effectiveness Ratio 0.39 0.40 - 0.47 - 0.36 Cost of Transfer US$1 2.07 1.98 4.02 1.80 3.85 2.23 Cost to Transfer Infrastructure Benefits to the Poor 2.59
2.47 - 2.13 - 2.79
15 Ravallion, Martin (1999) Appraising Workfare. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 1995. Washington DC:World Bank. This analysis is derived from the suggested approach in Subbarao, Kalanidhi; del Ninno, Carlo; Andrews, Colin; Rodríguez-Alas, Claudia (2013) Public Works as a Safety Net : Design, Evidence, and Implementation. Washington, DC: World Bank.
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11. Labor intensity is the share of wage costs relative to overall program costs. For the public works component of the South Sudan program, the project budget suggests a labor intensity of 0.67 (i.e. 67 percent of program costs go to wage transfers to workers). This is at par with similar projects in other countries in the region and in the world. Other public works programs show labor intensity rates of around 68 percent in Liberia (CfWTEP), 71 percent in India (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme), 85 percent in the Productive Safety Net Program in Ethiopia, 70 percent in Niger (NSP), and 70 percent in Bangladesh’s Food for Work Program (see Table 1 for details). Because of fixed administrative costs, this share is likely to improve should the project be scaled up or receive additional financing. A lower labor intensity rate could possibly also be justified in South Sudan, given the high costs of operating in the country.
12. Targeting performance is the extent to which the program benefits reach intended beneficiaries (such as the poor) and can be expressed as a ratio of the final beneficiaries that are eligible for the program. Targeting performance is difficult to predict, but because of the high share of poor people in South Sudan and in the project areas, combined with community based targeting method, we can assume a high share of benefits reach the poor. Moreover, there is an effective element of self-targeting associated with public works in that only those who are poor and do not have alternative revenue sources would agree to participate in the program. For the purpose of this analysis we assume the targeting performance to be 0.8 (i.e. 80 percent of the final beneficiaries receiving the program are intended beneficiaries), a reasonable assumption in comparison to other similar programs in comparable contexts.
13. Net wage gain is the share of the gross wage received by the poor which is a net gain, after taking into account any foregone income resulting from participating in the program. In the case of South Sudan, it can be assumed that the opportunity cost of participating in the program is very low for several reasons. First, the target group is poor youth and women with limited or no income, which means that they are unlikely to give up much income for the program. Second, the program would only last for 30 days per year (40 days in urban areas), so other income activities are not necessarily displaced by the public works program. Third, beneficiaries that are labor constrained for public works activities would undertake non-labor intensive activities like child care, oversight of public works implementation/materials/records and receive cash transfers, and for this group there would be negligible forgone earnings. Overall, we therefore assume that the net wage gain is 0.90 (i.e. for each dollar earned, on average 10 cents is lost from other potential income bringing activities).
14. Indirect benefits are those that would accrue to the poor from the assets created or services provided. In rural areas this is likely to be high, as the poor are relatively concentrated and there is a large infrastructure and services deficit in rural South Sudan. In the urban areas, a bit less so. For the purpose of this assessment we have assumed that this is 0.8, similar to the targeting accuracy.
D. Simulating impact on poverty and consumption
15. To estimate the direct impact of the wage transfer on the beneficiary households, we conducted an ex ante micro-simulation. We simulate the impact on consumption and poverty rates resulting from the wage transfers from the public works program. These micro-simulations are performed using South Sudan’s most recent national household survey that has a
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consumption component, the National Household Baseline Survey from 2009. To be as realistic as possible, we simulate the transfer with targeting errors, so that only 80 percent of intended beneficiaries receive the transfer. Because we cannot simulate the targeting conducted by communities, we simply define the intended beneficiaries as those living below the poverty line for the purposes of this simulation. Because the data used for the simulation is only representative at the state level, we are unable to generate estimates at the county level where the program is implemented. Also because the program would have all the poor as intended beneficiaries, the simulation results can only be taken as an indicative estimate of what would happen to poverty and consumption among those that receive the program. The most appropriate interpretation of the results is an estimate of impact of the program if it were implemented with the intention of covering all poor, statewide. Table 2 shows impact on the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) poverty measures and Table 3 shows the impact on mean per capita consumption in the target group.
Table 2: Simulation of impact of transfers on poverty measures
Poverty rate Poverty gap ratio Poverty gap ratio squared Area: 2009 Sim. Change 2009 Sim. Change 2009 Sim. Change
Jonglei 48.3% 45.6% -2.8% 0.22 0.21 -0.02 0.13 0.12 -0.01
Warrap 64.2% 62.4% -1.8% 0.34 0.32 -0.02 0.22 0.20 -0.02
Central Eq 43.5% 42.6% -1.0% 0.23 0.21 -0.02 0.15 0.14 -0.02
Eastern Eq 49.8% 46.2% -3.6% 0.20 0.18 -0.02 0.10 0.09 -0.01
Table 3: Impact on mean per capita monthly consumption
State Actual
(in 2009 SDG) Simulated
(in 2009 SDG) Change in
consumption
Jonglei 39.5 42.0 6%
Warrap 34.2 36.6 7%
Central Equatoria 35.2 37.9 8%
Eastern Equatoria 43.9 47.0 7% Note: figures are in 2009 SDG. Simulated consumption figures are monthly per capita means, based on total annual transfers with targeting errors.
16. As expected, the simulations show a clear positive impact on poverty and consumption in the areas where the project is proposed to be implemented. The poverty rate falls by 1-4 percentage points and mean per capita consumption increases by 6-8 percent among the target population in each area. The similar mean increases in consumptions suggest that the benefit levels are set in a fair and equal way across geographic areas (rural vs. urban and across states). The impact is meaningful, but not too large to create strong incentives for non-eligible households to participate in the program. It is important to keep in mind that the simulations do not take into account any general equilibrium, multiplier or behavioral effects. Moreover, the assumptions used for the simulation imply that every beneficiary household that is selected for participation chooses to participate in the public works program, that a member of that household works the total number of days offered (30 days in rural areas, 40 in urban areas) and receives the full amount of the transfer (US$ 3 equivalent in SDG). Furthermore, these simulations do not
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take into account the seasonality of the program.
1.2 Component 3 - Skills Development
A. Economic justification
17. Skills development is an economically rational intervention to prioritize when assisting the poor in South Sudan. As emphasized in the previous section about the public works program, the low level of skills is a major barrier to employment and productivity in the country.16 The majority of South Sudanese has no formal education and only a small minority has completed primary schooling. Among those with education, job market outcomes are much better and poverty rates are far lower than for those without education. This suggests that there are high economic returns to skills in the country. Thus, it can be argued that the single most important measure to improve job possibilities and earning opportunities for South Sudanese would be the improvement of skills, both through formal education and targeted skills intervention. In recent years, South Sudan has seen large increases in enrollment in formal education, which is likely to lead to a more skilled labor force in the future. However, a large number of adults and youth has not had access to the formal education system in the past, and are beyond the age where they are likely to enroll in formal education. Providing options for improving skills to these groups would be essential to expand the earning opportunities of the adult population.
18. The design and focus of the proposed skills development activities are likely to yield high economic benefit in the target group and for the local economy as a whole. The intervention’s focus on skills development that would expand income-generating opportunities for young men and women is appropriate. This group is no longer in the formal education system (if they ever were), and training activities for this group likely have high returns in terms of earnings opportunities. Moreover, providing employment opportunities for young men, in particular, is important for the wider stability of communities and the country as a whole, which is a key for overall economic progress. Idle young men can be a destabilizing factor in post-conflict countries, such as South Sudan. The focus on technical training that would build basic business skills, basic construction skills and improving agricultural productivity are appropriate, given the prevalence of the informal and agricultural sectors in the South Sudanese economy.
19. Skills training can potentially yield higher returns than cash or wage transfers even in the short term. There is growing evidence about the positive impact of non-cognitive skills on employment and earning potential.
B. Justification for government involvement
20. Skills training of the kind that is provided in the SNSDP would require government involvement to optimize design and effect. From a theoretical perspective, there are potentially high social returns to improving skills, which means that there are positive economic externalities. In other words, the skills acquired through training contribute more to the local economy and community than what the individual receives in higher earnings. While there also
16 Figures in this analysis originate from the forthcoming Poverty Assessment and numbers from the 2009 NHBS.
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are substantial private returns to the individual receiving the skills training, the market is not likely to provide the optimal amount of such skills training at the optimal price, given the positive externalities to society overall.
21. In practice, there are other factors that would constrain privately led skills development in South Sudan. The private sector is weak in the area of skill provision. Moreover many people would be credit constrained from taking up training courses even if they were provided. Furthermore, that there may be information deficits in regards to what economic returns can be expected from skills training. Hence from both a coordination, externality and information perspective, there is a clear role for government involvement in the provision of skills training in South Sudan.
22. Similar to the economic justification for government involvement for the public works program there are also institutional capacity benefits of government involvement in this type of intervention.
C. Cost effectiveness assessment
23. We do not have precise estimates of the economic returns to skills that the program would provide training for. In the case of the public works component, we can clearly identify the cash and material benefits that would occur to the beneficiary households. In the case of the skill component, it is hard to estimate the economic returns of the skills acquired during the training program, as we do not know the precise impact this would have on earnings and thus welfare. Nevertheless, we have reason to assume they are large due to the general lack of skills in the labor force, as discussed in the economic justification for this intervention.
24. The best available way to illustrate potential economic returns from the skill component is to look at lessons from similar projects in South Sudan. The Adolescent Girls Initiative (AGI), a project funded by the World Bank and implemented by BRAC in coordination with the Ministry of Gender and Social Welfare, had very similar activities to those planned under the skills component of the SNSDP.17 Preliminary results from this program point to significant positive economic returns for youth that participated in the program. After receiving training, 86 percent of the AGI livelihood beneficiaries were involved in income generating activities. This is an impressive share in the South Sudanese context, although it is unclear what the net contribution that can be attributed to the program.
25. To assess the relative cost effectiveness of the skills component, we compare its costs with those of the AGI project. Table 4 compares key cost items per beneficiary under each of the programs. The shares of operational costs compared to those of training costs are similar at around 25 percent. The SNSDP skills component has a higher share of grants than the AGI project’s revolving fund component. The cost per beneficiary is higher for the SNSDP, approximately 60 percent when excluding the cost of grants which are not directly part of the skills training. The skills training activities under the two programs are not directly comparable,
17 The numbers from AGI quoted in this document are from the final report from the implementer of the project: BRAC (2013) Adolescent Girls Initiative (AGI): Comprehensive Report.
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so this does not necessarily imply that the SNSDP is less effective than activities under the AGI project. In particular, the skills component of the SNSDP may have higher costs of carrying out trainings because of a stronger rural focus than AGI. Overall, the SNSDP skills component can be said to be comparable to the AGI project in terms of the share of resources directed towards training activities in relation to operational activities.
Table 4: Estimated cost-effectiveness and comparison to other programs
Item (per beneficiary) Adolescent Girls Initiative (AGI)
SNSDP Skills Component
Cost per beneficiary US$ 333 US$ 534
- Excluding grants US$ 288 US$ 409
Training costs (share of total) 76.2% 78.3%
Operational/Admin 23.8% 21.7%
Grants as share of total18 13.7% 23.4%
Authors’ estimate based on budget figures from the respective programs. Annual figures.
1.3 Financial sustainability
26. South Sudan’s fiscal space is large, thanks to high potential oil revenues, making the proposed interventions financially sustainable beyond the project period. South Sudan has received more than US$12 billion in oil revenues over the past six years and has adopted a large public sector funded by this revenue. Before the oil shutdown, the annual government budget was estimated at more than US$3.1 billion or 16 percent of GDP, and was among the very highest in the region when compared in per capita terms. Government consumption per capita (which excludes investment spending) was estimated at US$317 in South Sudan in 2011, which is more than twice that of Kenya, six times that of Uganda and ten times as high as in Ethiopia19.
27. The overall budget for the project is US$21 million for beneficiary activities over two years, giving average costs of US$10.5 million per year of beneficiary activities. The public works program would benefit 21,500 households per year and the skills components would benefit 3,500 households throughout the project life. With an average of 6.6 members per household this corresponds to a potential 249,000 individuals would directly benefit from the project each year, giving average project cost of US$49 per benefiting individual per beneficiary year (2 years of benefits over project duration). At the current scope and scale of the project the costs would correspond to 0.34 percent of the 2011 government annual budget and 0.05 percent of 2011 GDP, thus having only minor budgetary implications. In comparison, Ethiopia’s PSNP program has costs corresponding to 4.3 percent of its annual budget and 1.2 percent of GDP20.
18 In AGI the grant component is represented by revolving fund component. 19 World Bank (2013). World Development Indicators. General government final consumption expenditure (current US$). Data from, 2011. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NE.CON.GOVT.CD 20 Sources: Ethiopia Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP): Prospects for graduation and sustainability beyond
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28. Even if the program were scaled nationally to benefit all poor in the country, it would be financially feasible within current fiscal envelope. If a similar program were scaled to benefit all poor individuals in South Sudan (51 percent of the country or 5.26 million people), the total cost of the program would be approximately US$260 million, assuming similar costs implementing the program in all parts of the country. While costs are likely to be higher in certain regions, a scaling of the program is also likely to save overall costs from some economies of scale, thus scaling the cost linearly is a reasonable assumption. A total cost of US$260 million would correspond to 8 percent of the overall government budget or 1.3 percent of GDP, assuming a similar public spending and GDP as in 2011. While scaling these interventions to reach all poor households may be ambitious and not even desirable, the above example and calculations illustrate the relative financial sustainability of large scale social assistance programs in the country, given South Sudan’s unique budgetary situation.
29. A major risk to future fiscal sustainability is the uncertainty around future earnings from oil. In 2010 and 2011, 98 percent of central government revenues were from oil revenues. The prolonged shutdown in oil production in 2012 due to disagreements with Sudan over oil transit fees and other issues have caused a substantial fiscal collapse with the government losing 98 percent of its revenues, necessitating drastic budgetary austerity measures in 2012. While there now are agreements in place to resume oil production and consequently restore revenues, this experience has demonstrated the South Sudan government’s sensitivity to loss of oil revenues. Maintaining government revenues from oil is therefore essential to make such interventions at a large scale financially sustainable in the country in the future.
30. Under a non-oil revenue scenario, social programs are likely to have to be funded through aid resources. In 2011, the total ODA received by South Sudan was approximately US$1.1 billion, equivalent to approximately 1/3 of the size of the government budget, or 1/4 of all total public funds (government and ODA) available to the country21. The current program would be equivalent to 7 percent of the budget and 0.84 percent of total available public resources (when including ODA), so could potentially be maintained at its current scale. With a 98 percent decrease in government revenue it is unrealistic that the government or donors could financially sustain a nationwide scale-up of the intervention, as described under the oil revenue scenario in the preceding paragraphs.
2014 & PSPN project documents in World Bank project database. 21 ODA figures are from OECD DAC and correspond closely to the figures released by MoFEP on foreign assistance.
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Annex 8: Governance and Accountability
SOUTH SUDAN: Safety Net and Skills Development Project
1. A social protection project implemented under fragile and post conflict situation like South Sudan requires strong checks and balances. As this project would be implemented at community level with targeting criteria, direct transfers of funds and execution of community-level projects it requires governance and accountability measures to (a) ensure the targeting is done in fair and transparent manner; (b) ensure the transfer is protected from fraud, error and corruption; (c) prevent elite capture and manipulation by special interests; and (d) support the good flow of information that fosters a culture of transparency and efficiency.
2. Experience shows that social safety net projects often face risks related to misdirection of resource transfers to registered beneficiaries through error, corruption and fraud. Error is an unintentional violation of program or benefit rules that result in the wrong benefit amount being paid or being paid to an ineligible applicant. Errors can occur due to project staff mistakes and or when beneficiaries inadvertently provide incorrect information, while fraud and corruption occur when there is intentional attempt to exploit the system by beneficiaries and project staff respectively.
3. As outlined in the ORAF (Annex 4), the central risks to operation facing the South Sudan Social Safety nets and Skills Development project are:
• Capacity: Very Limited capacity for design, implementation and M&E of social protection programs, particularly very weak government capacity below state level;
• Governance: Due to weak overall governance structure in South Sudan, there could be substantial risks associated with financial management, procurement and accountability mechanisms in targeting the right beneficiaries;
• Fraud and Corruption: Risk of corruption, mismanagement, and elite capture in the implementation of the project particularly related to the cash transfer to beneficiaries.
4. The financial audit would be strengthened in the area of reconciliation of the payroll with household level data, including a review of the MIS data to provide a further check on the accuracy of payments to households. A regular roving audit would be introduced to provide an ongoing review of the effectiveness of the appeals and procurement processes and disseminate best practices in the project implementation area. Regular project audits would analyze MIS data and submit to the Steering Committee and World Bank.
5. The monitoring and evaluation framework and the MIS would provide an overarching supervisory function. The M&E system would provide formal mechanisms to assess good governance in implementation, including at mid-term review, impact evaluation and independent reviews. Community and local government representatives would be involved in the targeting of beneficiaries, and selection of public work activities, and would oversee transfer of cash to beneficiaries. Responsive and accessible feedback and grievance mechanisms in the form of community committees would be established to respond to and address any grievances that would be raised (Annex 9). The Project would adopt a system of beneficiary identification cards, if possible based on biometric data, to ensure that cash transfer would reach the intended beneficiaries. The MIS would provide regular reports and quantitative information on potential
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and actual beneficiaries, and provide a continuous overview of processes and raise red flags in implementation.
6. The communication strategy designed for this project would foster transparency, accountability and promote public oversight. This includes (a) public disclosure of key program information; (b) posting the annual detailed resource allocation plan of the project on the government website; (c) disclosing key program information at local levels; and (d) posting project budget and public works plan, approved beneficiary lists and list of appeals and appeal resolutions at the County, Payam and Boma/community levels using simplified templates and formats appropriate to the local context. These transparency and accountability mechanisms would ensure that citizens are informed and can have the opportunity to engage in key decision making processes in the project implementation and supervision activities.
7. Social accountability mechanisms that put emphasis on monitoring and user-based feedback as a demand-driven intervention would be introduced. Various measures would be designed to improve accountability and to ensure that citizens are informed and have the opportunity to engage in key decision-making processes. Available evidence suggests that high rates of community involvement can effectively hold local decision-makers to account. To this effect, a participatory community monitoring and accountability framework would be introduced into the project. Specifically, the framework would introduce the comprehensive Community Score Card (CSC) as a tool for participatory monitoring of the quality, access, efficiency and effectiveness of the project. The use of these tools is an empowering process as it includes an interface meeting between service providers and users/community that allows for immediate feedback and agreeing on a joint plan of action for reform.
8. These tools would play a useful role in gauging beneficiaries’ perceptions on the project overall planning and implementation issues and provide valuable feedback to project implementers and other stakeholders. Specifically community scorecard process would: (a) serve as one of the tools for monitoring governance of the project, (b) help to obtain regular citizen feedback on the timeliness and accuracy of payment, fairness and transparency of the targeting process, the effectiveness of the grievance handling mechanism etc., and (c) contribute to capacity enhancement for communities in demanding accountability and responsiveness from project implementers.
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Annex Table 10: Governance and Accountability Matrix
Risk Agreed Actions/Activities
Person/Agency Responsible for Implementation
Timeline (Years) 1 2 3
Preparation / Implementation status
Person/Agency Responsible for Monitoring
I. Capacity: Very limited capacity for design, implementation and M&E of social protection programs, particularly very weak government capacity below state level.
Undertake institutional capacity assessment of the implementing agencies including their financial management, procurement, and M&E Capacity
WB/ implementing agencies particularly Ministries of Agriculture, Labor and Gender.
X The World Bank team including the FM and procurement specialists conducted assessment of the capacity of the implementing agencies particularly Ministries of Agriculture, Labor and Gender.
WB
Capacity gaps identified by the assessment would be addressed through targeted capacity building measures
WB/ implementing agencies particularly Ministries of Agriculture, Labor and Gender.
X X X Training and capacity building activities would be detailed in the Operations Manual
WB, Government
The government would assign local staff to the TST and the local staff would be mentored by consultants with the ultimate objective of government staff taking over full responsibility
Implementing agencies particularly Ministries of Agriculture, Labor and Gender
X X X This is a continuous process. The TOR for the TST and government counterpart staff would include milestones that would be monitored to ensure that knowledge transfer is happening
WB, Government
II. Governance: Risks associated with financial management and procurement and accountability mechanisms in targeting the right beneficiaries
(i) The implementing agency would be staffed with TST including qualified Financial Management and Procurement specialists and robust financial and social accountability mechanisms would be incorporated in the design of the project.
Government X The TST would be hired after the approval of the project; however, the government has already assigned focal persons in the three implementing ministries
Government , WB
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(ii) Community and local government representatives would be involved in the targeting of beneficiaries, selection of public work activities and transfer of cash to beneficiaries
Local government, community and NGO
X X X TST, WB
iii) List of approved beneficiaries, allocated budget and planed project activities would be disclosed to enhance transparency and accountability in the system
Local government, community and NGO
X X X TST, WB
iv) Responsive and accessible feedback and grievance mechanisms in the form of community committees would be established to respond to and address any grievances that would be raised.
Local government, community and NGO
X X X grievance mechanisms would be developed at the start of the project implementation
TST, WB
III. Fraud and Corruption: Risk of corruption, mismanagement, and elite capture in the implementation of the implementation of the project particularly related to the cash transfer to beneficiaries.
i) The TST would be staffed with qualified Financial Management and Procurement specialists and robust financial and social accountability mechanisms would be incorporated in the design of the project
TST, NGOs X
ii) The Project would adopt a system of beneficiary identification cards, if possible based on biometric data, to ensure the cash transfer would reach the intended beneficiaries
TST, NGO X X
iii) Communities and local government representatives would be involved in the targeting of beneficiaries, selection of public work activities, and transfer of cash to beneficiaries
TST, local government, NGO
X X X
iv) Community appeal committees TST, local government, X
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IV) Design: The cash transfer activities under the Project present a fiduciary risk, particularly given the low capacity of both the public sector and private service providers, such as commercial banks and mobile phone companies
The Project would leverage existing NGO capacity to facilitate transparent cash transfers to beneficiaries.
TST, NGO X X X
The Project would initially rely on manual payroll system and would overtime move to ICT innovations to manage beneficiary payments and a redress mechanism would allow for direct and open feedback from project beneficiaries in the case of any questions regarding payment processes.
TST, local government, NGO
X X X
would be established to address any grievances that may arise
NGO
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Annex 9: Grievance Redress Mechanism
SOUTH SUDAN: Safety Net and Skills Development Project 1. Given that the proposed operation has multiple stakeholders and implementing agencies, and adopts a community-based approach to beneficiary identification, the implementation process could lead to conflicts, disputes and/or differences with respect to fairness of geographic targeting, beneficiary selection, identification and implementation of activities, payments and transfers. To address these conflicts and grievances, a responsive and accessible Grievance Redress Mechanism would be established in the form of community appeal committees that responds and addresses any grievances that would be raised during the process of project implementation.
2. An Appeal Committee with 5-7 members would be established at each of the targeted Boma and Payam. Members of the appeal committee would be elected by the community taking into account gender balance as well as existing traditional norms. Orientations would be provided for the appeal committees on how to receive, redress and report project related grievances. Each appeal committee would elect a focal person/secretary who receives grievance, complaint or feedback reports coming from community members.
3. While detailed procedure would be laid down on how to receive grievances and complains in the Project Operational Manual, the table below provides some of the types of grievances that may arise out of different component implementation, the redress mechanism, and some of the key processes that need to be in place to avoid/mitigate the grievances.
4. The process for redressing of grievances under different implementation levels of the project should be as simple as possible and should take into account the roles of traditional community associations in conflict resolution. When complaints come from community members, the Appeals Committee focal person would receive the appeal, registers and presents it to the Committee for review and action within a week. The appeal committee would check whether the complaint is a perceived or real unfairness and inconsistency in the implementation of the project and decides the authority to which the appeal should be directed for redress. If the complaint is related to project implementation but is beyond their respective level to resolve, Appeal Committees would forward the case to the relevant upper project implementation structure and seek solution.
5. Appeals against a lower level of project implementation would be filed with the next higher project implementation hierarchy as soon as possible. Once grievance reports have been forwarded to the appropriate address within the project operation structures of Boma and Payam, they should be verified, investigated and acted upon within a month. Feedbacks and complaints related to misuse of project fund would be reported to the relevant project oversight structure of the government at Boma, Payam, County, and State level. Appeals that are not directly related to the operation and implementation of the project should be carefully scrutinized and directed to the appropriate government structure. In all cases the outcome of the appeals process should be positive and should not lead to undesirable outcomes like conflicts.
6. The type and number of appeals and the remedial actions given would be recorded for review. An appeals review would be undertaken annually to provide advice and guidance to the
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Appeal Committees and relevant County, Payam and Boma level decision-makers in order to strengthen the overall appeals system.
Table 11. Matrix on Grievances and Redress Mechanism
Key Project Activities
Type of Grievances Responsibility for redress
Remarks/Comments
Unified Registry of Beneficiaries
• Composition of Community Team coordinating activity
• Exclusion of households from initial beneficiary selection list
• Inclusion of households that do not meet selection criteria;
• Variance in the final beneficiary list of extreme poor households
• BDC/PDC, Payam Team, depending on each case
Conduct information campaign for communities and implementation staff on process for beneficiary selection in addition to modalities of project priorities and budgets.
Selection of public works
• Type of sub-project • Location of sub-project • Design and composition of inputs
• BDC/PDC, Payam Team, depending on each case
Implementation staff trained and proper facilitation of process
Public works implementation
• Delays in supply of work tools • Physical or verbal abuse by staff of
implementing partner or officials or other participants.
• Inadequate flexibility for women and physically challenged
• Sexual Harassment
• BDC/PDC, Payam Team, depending on the case
Proper facilitation for community members, training of implementation staff, well-functioning GRM
Beneficiary assignment
• Collusion between members in selection process, denying opportunities for needy/deserving beneficiaries
• Inadequate role for women and youth within works
• BDC/PDC Proper facilitation and oversight by BDC/PDC
Beneficiary targeting
• Beneficiaries not meeting criteria assigned to programs
• One household selected on more than one program
• Boma Team/ Payam Core Team
Use of agreed transparent targeting criteria with approval of community meetings
Payment • Delays in fund disbursement and payment
• Over/under payment • Fairness in pay rate between men
and women
• BDC/Executive Officer
Transparent pay rates and time of payment
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Annex 10: Communications Strategy
SOUTH SUDAN: Safety Net and Skills Development Project 1 The draft Interim Strategy Note (ISN) for South Sudan outlines the need for a social protection program focused on productive safety nets and skills development activities. The Government has requested World Bank support to help address the challenge of high underemployment and idleness, particularly among youth, which is seen as a potential destabilizing stress factor within South Sudan. Responding to this request, the World Bank has determined to allocate resources for a program to be executed under the PSSNSDP. The project would focus on livelihood opportunities, particularly for women and youth, through public works and skills development. This approach is based on the World Bank's ongoing technical assistance to social protection policy in South Sudan and its programmatic achievements since re-engagement in the country.
2 The objective is to provide access to income opportunities and temporary employment to the poor and vulnerable and lay the foundation for a social protection system. To achieve the objective, there must be effective communications right from the beginning to the end of the project.
3 The proposed Project is a pilot venture to be executed in limited geographical locations for selected beneficiaries. Needless to say, the preparation and implementation of this project would raise issues of equity that would require effective communications to address them. The World Bank task team, the government and other stake holders must be convinced right at the preparatory stage that the approach of implementing the activities only in selected areas with few beneficiaries is justified so that it is efficiently managed with the limited resources available. If it proves successful, the government can then replicate the practice in other areas for more beneficiaries. This would require candid face to face communications among the planners and other stakeholders.
4 The areas and people identified to benefit by the proposed Project are likely to have very high expectations for improvement of their quality of life. They should be made aware of the project objective and its limited scope. This knowledge could be imparted by government managers and NGOs implementing the project through workshops and as well as the local media.
5 It may also be misconstrued that this project would provide beneficiaries with sustainable jobs. It must be stressed to them that this project empowers them by giving them skills for self-employment or to compete in the labor market. There are no available jobs to be distributed at the completion of the project.
6 For the proposed Project to make an impact and emulate in subsequent government interventions to create jobs, it must be well understood and accepted by the decision makers. This requires a sustained communications campaign throughout the life span of the project. It is essential to create campaigns around milestone activities of the project such as signing of the financing agreement, project launching, mid-term reviews, field visits and project completion ceremony.
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7 There must be a way of demonstrating the impact the proposed project has made in the life of the chosen areas and people. This makes it imperative to record the status of the areas and people by capturing the appearance of the places and the conditions of life of the beneficiaries by listening to their testimonies from the beginning to the end of the project. Another way of doing this is by choosing a few beneficiaries and follow them from the beginning to the end to capture how their livelihoods have improved.
Program of work Activities Targets When Frequency By Who Objective Meetings Gov’t officials,
NGOs Project preparatory stage
As the need arises
Task Team Explain the pilot nature of the project
Workshops Gov’t officials, NGOs, beneficiaries
At the launch of the project
One for every chosen location
Task Team and Govt officials
Explain objectives of the project and its limited scope
News releases/News Conference
Decision makers, beneficiaries and NGOs
At every important Phase of the project, launch, review, field visits
News releases as the need arises and 3 News conferences
Task Team, Gov’t focal person.
Keep stakeholders informed about progress and challenges
Media field coverage
Beneficiaries, Decision makers and NGOs
Midway and end towards end of project
Twice Task Team, Comm. Officer and commissioned video, newspaper and radio producers
Showcase the results of the project with the view to convince decision makers to replicate the practice in other areas of the country
Monitoring progress of chosen beneficiaries
Decision makers and donors
From beginning to end of project
Continuous Comm. Officer and a commissioned video producer
Produce a documentary to show the life and times of a beneficiary
Seminar Decision makers
Towards the end of the project
Once Task Team and Gov’t focal points
Sell the ideas of the project to be included in government development program and publicize the trained beneficiaries to employers
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Annex 11: Lessons Learned from Previous South Sudan Interventions
Adolescent Girls Initiative (AGI) and Emergency Food Crisis Response Project (SSEFCRP)
1. SOUTH SUDAN: ADOLESCENT GIRLS INITIATIVE (AGI)
South Sudan’s Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare (MoGCSW) is implementing the South Sudan Adolescent Girls Initiative (AGI) Project, financed by a Grant of US$2 million from the Multi Donor Trust Funds (MDTF) managed by the World Bank. The goal of the initiative, running from 2010 to 2012, is the social and economic empowerment of adolescent girls and young women aged 15-24 to enable them to establish themselves in their communities with confidence and independence and to lead dignified lives. Through a holistic approach, the project aims to make beneficiary adolescent girls and young women confident and independent by socially and financially empowering them.
1.1. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
The initiative covers four states (Lakes, Jonglei, Central and Eastern Equatoria) and targets 3,000 adolescent girls, who are: (1) aged between 15-24, (2) willing to participate in club activities, (3) with all levels of education, including no schooling, (4) both married and unmarried, and (5) permanent residents of the targeted villages.
The initiative focuses on the following six components:
Component 1: Safe Place for Adolescent Girls
This component aims at providing a safe space for adolescent girls where they are able to exercise their freedom to express themselves, learn, and socialize. The project creates clubs to serve as centers for various training and for safe interactions among girls and between them and their mentors. Each club has a club leader who is an adolescent girl.
Component 2: Life Skills Training
The life skills training teaches critical social issues, including sexual and reproductive health, early marriage, gender-based violence, drug abuse, and other relevant topics, with the aim of minimizing risky behaviors leading to early pregnancy, exposure to STDs, etc. Centrally-based training units train the local program staffs (community organizers), who then conduct a training-of-trainers for the club leaders and, subsequently, teach the club members.
Component 3: Livelihood Training
Livelihood training provides skills for both agricultural and non-agricultural wage and self-employment sectors. The specific curriculum and training modules depend on the results of a labor market survey and the demands of the locality. Examples of training include home gardening, raising domestic animals, tailoring and embroidery, photography, computer technology, salon activities, and hotel management. Agriculture and animal husbandry are the most subscribed training programs, particularly in rural areas.
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Component 4: Financial Literacy Training
Financial literacy training provides girls with a better understanding of the management of both personal finances and the economic aspects of small businesses. The financial literacy training compliments the life skills and livelihood training with the aim of enabling the adolescent girls to leverage the learning from these two other trainings and start income generating activities.
Component 5: Saving and Credit Services
This component involves the provision of saving and credit facilities to give girls opportunities for financial self-empowerment. Loans amount at 500 to 1,000 SSP, and are provided in weekly installments, with an interest rate of 18 percent.
Component 6: Community Sensitization
BRAC puts emphasis on community involvement throughout the program as a mean of raising awareness on and building valuable support for AGI and its participants. Community involvement includes monthly mothers’ forum meetings, holiday celebrations, cultural activities, and inter-clubs game competitions.
1.2. PROGRESS AT A GLANCE
AGI Targets and Achievements as of September 2012 Description Targeted Achieved State Coverage 4 4 County Coverage 5 5 Area Coverage 5 5 Number of Adolescent Clubs 100 100 Number of Adolescent Members 3000 3000 Life Skill Training 3000 3000 Adolescent Leaders Training 100 100 Livelihood Training 3000 2913 Creation of Job 3000 2332 Financial Literacy Training 3000 3000 Member selection for MF 1100 1088 Loan Disbursement 1100 144 Formation of Club Management Committee 100 100
1.3. PRELIMINARY IMPACT ASSESSMENT
A preliminary assessment of program results shows notable positive impacts at different levels. The AGI has shown notable results in triggering earning opportunities for young women. The great majority (80 percent) of adolescent girls who have participated in livelihood training now have a job: 2332 members are in fact engaged in income generating activities of various types (tailoring, carpentry, computer, agriculture, and so on). Moreover, 144 members have benefited from loan support to start their own business.
Skill training to adolescent girls appears to have an impact at the household and community levels. Girls have become more aware and concerned about health, hygiene and sanitation
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issues, and, in turn, less likely to fall in risky behaviors. They also are more capable to manage their household finances. Moreover, women are better able to actively engage within the community, as they are capable to discuss social and environmental issues. They now proactively take part in local cultural events, game competitions and national day celebrations, which triggers a sense of ownership and responsibility towards the entire community.
Coupled with their economic achievements, these social dynamics positively impact the effective involvement of women within their villages and, in turn, influence the perception of the role of young women, as they gain respect from their family and the community as a whole.
1.4. LESSONS LEARNED FROM AGI AND SIMILAR EXPERIENCES
First, the pilot reflects growing evidence from interventions with high-risk youth about the impact of non-cognitive skills on employment and earning potential. Comprehensive training programs, combining vocational and life skills with hands-on experience, are increasingly popular to reach out to vulnerable youth (Almeida et al, 2012). The relevance of non-cognitive skills is further confirmed by evidence coming from LICs and MICs in Latin America, where trainees of comprehensive programs are more likely to find a job and tend to have better quality jobs than non-trainees (Almeida et al, 2012).
Second, the intervention shows that local staffs play a crucial role in the implementation Phase. This finding suggests that additional capacity development would help overcome various implementation challenges, minimizing costs, while strengthening local capacity to encourage sustainability. Moreover, it generates ownership and responsibility among local organizations, which further contributes to a successful implementation and to the overall sustainability of the project.
Third, local demand for specific trades and existing constraints to employability at grassroots level must be taken into account in the project design. As the experience in Latin America confirms, successful policies place strong emphasis on the assessment of the beneficiary’s main constraints and needs to employability, through beneficiary profiling and program customization (Almeida et al, 2012). A sound market analysis is needed to identify which activities can be most profitable and successful at local level.
Fourth, it is relevant to stress that very few programs are able to transform intra-household relations in a way to ensure that increased household income is effectively managed and allocated, and that it does not have adverse effects on existing relations within the household. The provision of life skill and livelihood training seems to be able to simultaneously impact on women’s practical needs and on transforming gender relations.
Finally, such programs offer some promise to policy makers, as they tend to be low cost and scalable interventions. Although evidence is limited, comprehensive training programs tend to be quite cost effective active labor market interventions, and to have rather good rates of return (Almeida et al, 2012). In Uganda, combined ELA intervention appears to improve outcomes at least as well as single-pronged, classroom-based interventions that have focused exclusively on either reducing risky behaviors or building vocational skills (Bandiera et al, 2012).
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2. SOUTHERN SUDAN EMERGENCY FOOD CRISIS RESPONSE PROJECT (SSEFCRP)
The Southern Sudan Emergency Food Crisis Response Project is financed by World Bank’s grants totaling US$10.2 million from the Food Price Crisis Trust Fund and implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Cooperatives, and Rural Development (MoAFCRD) with NGO counterparts (Norwegian People's Aid, Action Africa Help International, World Vision, Acted, and Mercy Corps).
2.1. PROJECT OVERVIEW
The project, which runs from October 2008 to June 2013, aims to increase access to food for consumption by food insecure rural households or groups living in six of the most distressed counties of Southern Sudan (one county each from Unity, Upper Nile, Western Bahr-el-Ghazal, Warrap, Western Equatoria, and Central Equatoria states). The project targets 228,500 individuals through three main components:
a) Support to Agricultural Productivity (US$5.7 million): This component aims to reduce vulnerability to food price escalation through increased production and improved postharvest handling of key staples. The component also provides inputs and tools to farming cooperatives to expand their agricultural land. The component provides grants for construction of low-cost food banks and granaries at the household and community levels.
b) Strengthening Community Safety Nets (US$3.7 million): The objective of this component is to increase the ability of targeted food insecure households to buy food by providing cash-for-work or obtain it directly through food-for-work. The public works undertaken enhance agricultural productivity or reduce postharvest losses. This component targets 31,300 individuals, who work for receive US$10 per day, for a period that ranges from 10 20 days depending on the task.
c) Support to Project Implementation Arrangements (US$0.8 million): This component finances the administrative costs of implementing NGOs, project operational costs, and the strengthening of public institutions for coordination at the different levels. Support under this component, also defrays costs associated with M&E.
2.2. PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION
Overall, the responsibility for implementation of the project lies with the inter-ministerial Southern Sudan Project Steering Committee (SSPSC), chaired by the MoAFCRD. The Southern Sudan Technical Committee (SSTC) is housed within the SSPSC and supported by Technical Assistants (TAs) located in the existing project coordination unit (PCU) of the MoAFCRD. These two bodies work together monitor and supervise the implementation of the activities contracted out to the NGOs.
Implementation arrangements
Because of the limited capacity at the central and state ministries, on-the-ground execution is the
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role of contracted NGOs (AAH-I, ACTED, NPA, World Vision and Mercy Corps), responsible for identification of beneficiaries, design and implementation of the activities, and the cash transfer to beneficiaries. NGO implementation is supervised and monitored by the SSPSC and SSTC. In addition, within the PCU, a post-harvest specialist in MoAFCRD supervises post- harvest activities on behalf of the SSTC and the Director General (DG) for Agriculture and Extension is directly engaged in the technical oversight.
Fiduciary arrangements
Financial management arrangements for this project follow the current Financial Management framework under the Multi-Donor Trust Funds for Southern Sudan (MDTF-S), supervised by the World Bank. The implementing entities prepare their annual budget forecast for review by the PCU, the MoAFCRD, and the World Bank for approval. The entities handle all the financial management aspects using the Project Accounting Agent (PAA) instructed procedures set out by the GOSS and the MDTF-S. Financial reports are submitted monthly, quarterly, and annually and project accounts are audited by a GOSS-appointed auditor. Procurement is in compliance with the World Bank’s guidelines.
Arrangements for supervision, monitoring and evaluation
Like other emergency projects supported by the World Bank, there are a minimum of four intensive support missions per year. Implementing agencies are required to produce bi-annual technical audit reports for the SSTC. The SSTC, as well as the SSPSC, also make regular spot visits to project sites. The contracted NGOs also submit quarterly reports to the SSTC. The SSTC and SSPSC are expected to provide written comments on all update reports.
2.3. OVERVIEW OF PROGRESS TO DATE
The Project has reached 216,885 direct beneficiaries over targeted 228,500 individuals (94.9 percent). As a result of increased production and improved postharvest management, anecdotal evidence indicates that food insecurity among project beneficiaries has been reduced. Monitoring data (although of low quality) shows that the percent of targeted food insecure households in project area with food reserves increased from 12 to 74 over the implementation period. Incomes for some households have improved either through sales of surplus produce or through transfers obtained from the cash for work program.
The project is, however, still beset by a few of the challenges identified then including the high geographic dispersion of the project intervention sites amidst poor road infrastructure which has led to escalation of project implementation and monitoring costs and limited follow-up of implementing NGOs by MAFCRD. Other challenges relate to weaknesses in M&E, the quality of reporting and the veracity of data collected by the implementing agency.
2.4. LESSONS LEARNED AND WAY FORWARD
The implementation arrangements described above have been able to successfully leverage on existing capacity, allowing to partially overcome those challenges that typically hinder achievements in fragile contexts.
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First, the establishment of a PIU staffed by international consultants has demonstrated capacity to for implementation but must be complimented by capable Government-assigned local staff to gradually assume greater supervision and monitoring responsibilities. A centerpiece of capacity-building in LICs involves establishing a PIU within Government as a concrete first step toward increasing local ownership of the sector and local coordination of the objectives and implementation of ongoing interventions. The transfer of capacity from the international PIU staff to their local Government counterparts must be carefully considered in the implementation arrangements.
Second, SSEFCRP’s successful implementation has been based on effective working relationship between the MoAFCRD and their NGO counterparts at grass-root level. NGOs have been contracted on the basis of their consolidated presence in the targeted areas over time, through field offices and a network of good local connections, which are particularly important in terms of beneficiary selection and payment delivery.
Third, the transfer of capacity to local counterparts is relevant to enhance the effectiveness of NGOs involvement on the ground. In fragile contexts, implementing effective monitoring and evaluation system is particularly challenging due to weak administrative capacity and infrastructure. Involving local leaders and NGOs/CBOs could be a smart way out. However, errors in data collection and analysis are recurrent and require careful supervision.
3. CONCLUDING RECOMMENDATIONS
Both aspects (the use of public work programs and the delivery of comprehensive training) are relevant to address vulnerability in the longer term by transitioning from ad hoc emergency interventions towards a sustainable, long-term development perspective. Based on findings above, the following considerations should inform the design an effective intervention in South Sudan:
• Partnering with local government and organizations is key to ensure a smooth implementation and to encourage sustainability through the strengthening of local capacity;
• The development of a PIU must include strong involvement of civil servants in the PIU, which is essential to lay the foundation for building capacity within Government;
• The transfer of local capacity is key for effective beneficiary selection, payment and training delivery, and monitoring and evaluation;
• Conducting a sound market analysis at local level in order to identify constraints to employability and local demand for skills and jobs is crucial;
• Partnering with private business can be considered as a successful means to improve job opportunities; and
• Community involvement is crucial to ensure the achievement of results and overall sustainability of the project.
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CENTRALAFRICANREPUBLIC
D.R. OF CONGO
UGANDA
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Kinyeti(3187 m)
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SOUTHSUDAN
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SOUTH SUDANCITIES AND TOWNS
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This map was produced by the Map Design Unit of The World Bank. The boundaries, colors, denominations and any other informationshown on this map do not imply, on the part of The World BankGroup, any judgment on the legal status of any territory, or anyendorsement or acceptance of such boundaries.
