The World Bank Report No: ISR9063 Implementation Status & Results South Sudan South Sudan Gender Support & Development Project (P115717) Public Disclosure Copy Operation Name: South Sudan Gender Support & Development Project Project Stage: Implementation Seq.No: 4 Status: ARCHIVED Archive Date: 04-Feb-2013 (P115717) Country: South Sudan Approval FY: 2010 Product Line: Recipient Executed Activities Region: AFRICA Lending Instrument: Emergency Recovery Loan Implementing Agency(ies): Key Dates Board Approval Date 26-Aug-2009 Original Closing Date 29-Jun-2011 Planned Mid Term Review Date Last Archived ISR Date 16-Oct-2012 Effectiveness Date 16-Nov-2009 Revised Closing Date 31-Dec-2012 Actual Mid Term Review Date Project Development Objectives Project Development Objective (from Project Appraisal Document) The project development objective is to achieve immediate peace dividends for targeted women in Southern Sudan, through the provision of: (a) improvements in access to the existing economic opportunities and (b) support to the Ministry of Gender to develop genderpolicies and strategies. Has the Project Development Objective been changed since Board Approval of the Project? Yes No Component(s) Component Name Component Cost Economic Empowerment of Women 4.00 Construction of Ministry Building 3.00 Institutional Development 3.00 Overall Ratings Public Disclosure Copy Previous Rating Current Rating Progress towards achievement of PDO Moderately Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory Overall Implementation Progress (IP) Moderately Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory Overall Risk Rating Substantial Implementation Status Overview Economic Empowerment (Component 1): This ISR covers the implementation period from May2012 through October 2012. There have been 2 supervision mission in the past year, a supervision mission of the project was conducted in March/April 2012 and October l2012. All sub-projects are under implementation and include both farming and non-farm activities. Generally, implementation activities of sub-projects are progressing well, 45% of the women perceive an increase in income as opposed to 20% expected and indicated in the results framework. Current estimates for the total number of sub-project beneficiaries stand roughly at 7,300,although these numbers may be revised after validation from the Page 1 of 10 The World Bank Report No: ISR9063 final field visit in January as input to the ICR. Income generating activities cover abroad range of industries including; agriculture, poultry, tailoring,brick-making, restaurant and hotel services,and micro-credit. Of the sub-projects visited, most organizations appear to be carrying out the activities originally proposed. Several associations with agriculture production sub-projects have already completed one harvest cycle. Several poultry projects have also begun to sell chickens and eggs. In some cases profits generated from the sale of produce have been distributed to members according to their priorities, though most sub-projects seem to be reinvesting in the income generating activities. The sub-projects have a multiplier Public Disclosure Copy effect on the neighboring community groups. This is evident from the many requests for support that the implementing CBOs& NGOs and the Ministry of Gender is receiving from multiple communities that see the immediate impact on the lives of the participating women. All projects that had been approved for the second tranche of funding were visited in the two states, this includes ten sub-projects in Western Bahr el Ghazal and eleven in EasternEquatoria. Given that many sub-projects have activities indifferent locations, the field teams were not able to visit and see all the activities first hand due to difficulty of mobility and time constraint, and had to rely on the information provided by the chairperson. In total, six of the twelve project sites inWestern Bahr el Ghazal were visited, as were fifteen of the twenty-eight in Eastern Equatoria. Meetings with beneficiaries were crucial, as they helped to confirm or refute the impact of the sub-project as provided by its leader.Twenty-two women were interviewed in Western Bahr el Ghazal and fifty in Eastern Equatoria. One of the major lessons from the on-going sub-projects is the issue of fragility and sustainability of the project impacts gained through the investment in crop, vegetable production and other non-agricultural investments. In addition to the Bank team's field visit, the project team has undertaken a comprehensive monitoring & evaluation of the sub-projects in April/May2012. This M&E report validates the concern that it can be difficult to attribute the results the team was shown directly to GSDP funding, especially when the funds were used to expand existing and on-going activities prior to the GSDP funding. Second, the impacts realized so far are often small. The average benefit accrued to those that benefited after a year and a half amounted to SSP250-500. In some cases, successful projects have reinvested all of their earnings back into project activities instead of distributing them to members.This shows the interest and commitment of the women to continue with their economic activities as a group. In some cases individual women have received no benefits despite the fact that the project is performing well. This also shows one of the limitations of the evaluation. There were many challenges for component 1, the M&E report points these out to recommend improvements for future projects. The most common limiting factor was the implementing organizations’ lack of engagement with the beneficiary women themselves. Almost none of the many women the team talked to during the project were aware of the size of the project. Only few were involved in the planning of the project. Future projects would do well to consider holding workshops involving all, or a sub-set of targeted members. Other over all challenges include difficulty in disbursing money given the under developed banking structure, a lack of capacity within the organizations, especially with regards to preparing financial reports, insecurity and transport. Out puts from component 1 are quantified in order to provide a deeper examination of the results (M&E ReportJuly2012,TableES6). This analysis, conducted through an extensive review of financial documentation as well as through field visits, shows a gap in the operations and maintenance of the tools bought under the sub-project. A lack of local expertise to fix them, as well as a lack of spare parts and fuel, was the most common cause for an item to be in disrepair. The report shows that there are many indicators of success for funding community based projects. The report makes the qualitative observation that projects that provide a clear incentive structure to their members are more likely to succeed than those that do not. It also demonstrates through statistical analysis that choosing organizations that have been around for a longer period , have a head office and submit financial documentation with their proposal have a higher potential for success than others.The amount spent per beneficiary and an organization's experience with donors,on the other hand, are not great predictors of an organizations chance of succeeding. A better way to incentivize focal persons would p robably lead to a higher chance for organizations’ success. The quarterly allowance paid to the focal persons to undertake monitoring activities has in most cases served as a welcome incentive to monitor the sub-project activities. Given the importance of close follow-up, future projects should consider either using dedicated staff at state level or designing a different incentive structure. Public Disclosure Copy The Ministry Construction: The Construction contract for the MoGCSW building was signed on 27th September 2011. The effective commencement date of the contract was 28th November 2011 when mobilization guarantee was provided by the Contractor – Mellech Engineering & Construction Limited (MECL) of Kenya. The completion date in the contract was stipulated to be 30th June 2012, which allowed a construction period of just over 7 months. However, the work progressed very slowly. The poor progress of construction as well as quality of supervision by Kagga & Partners Consulting Engineers (KPCE) of Uganda raised concerns during the Oversight Committee meeting. The Joint Donor Team (JDT) offered to provide an independent External Consultant (EC) to assist the Ministry in their supervision of the two contracts (works as well as consultancy). Despite all the efforts by the donors and the ministry, the building still remains at 31% completion. The slow progress of the construction of the building has been discussed extensively at various fora, such as project coordinator’s IWG and the Oversight Committee meetings. It has been made clear to the ministry that all MDTF-SS funds must be utilized by December 31st, 2012 and that any unused funds would have to be returned to MDTF donors, and that the government will have to look for alternative resources to complete construction. The Bank has also consistently advised the client to undertake seek alternative source of funding and take urgent actions to pursue the contractors to expedite the Page 2 of 10 The World Bank Report No: ISR9063 construction. At the Oversight Committee meeting on December 6, 2012, the donors decided to engage directly with the ministry on financing the completion of the building. Institutional Development. Under this component, a Country Gender Assessment (CGA) was initiated in October 2011 and finalized in March 2012.The assessment identified a Public Disclosure Copy number of issues and provided recommendations, including the need to have a clear Gender Mainstreaming Policy for the Ministry as well as a Strategic Plan for the Directorate of Gender and Child Welfare - the key directorate charged with working on gender concerns in the Ministry. Based on the recommendations the ministry was able to update the draft Gender Policy Framework into a full- fledged National Gender Policy. Gender Policy is currently pending presentation to the Legislative Assembly by the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare. In addition to the gender Policy, the World Bank, UN Women and the Joint Donor Team are supporting the Ministry of Gender in the development of a National Strategic Plan for the implementation of the Gender Policy; resulting in sector action plans. The CGA is also currently being used to update and align the 1325 Study undertaken by the Joint Donor Team. The project's contribution to the improvement of the policy environment and institutional capacity of the Ministry has been well appreciated. The training was completed for 45 officials and printing of three modules of training manuals used in the training for the ten states was completed. It also provided a strong basis for other follow up trainings that were provided to the Ministry of Gender staff at the national and states levels. The training manuals are currently being used at the States level to conduct trainings to other staff on various administrative and gender mainstreaming issues. The gender assessment and various institutional building activities supported by the project have become an anchor for the Ministry’s current reorganization effort, strategy and program development. The work of the project under this component has also attracted the attention and support of other development partners, who are now using the study as bases for their support to the Ministry. Locations Country First Administrative Division Location Planned Actual Sudan Not Entered Lakes State Sudan Not Entered Central Equatoria State Sudan Not Entered Western Equatoria State Sudan Not Entered Eastern Equatoria State Sudan Not Entered Warrap State Results Public Disclosure Copy Project Development Objective Indicators Page 3 of 10 The World Bank Report No: ISR9063 Indicator Name Core Unit of Measure Baseline Current End Target Target women who perceive an increase in Percentage Value 7634.00 2993.00 20.00 income as a result of project interventions Date 10-Sep-2009 29-May-2012 31-Dec-2012 Public Disclosure Copy Comments The project has to wait for the When figuring the total self reporting questionnaire numbers of beneficiaries that have benefited as identified by the chairperson the beneficiaries vary by sub- project as the number of beneficiaries includes members of sub-projects that did not benefit. Similarly, for the few projects wherebeneficiaries were mixed, it is probably more accurate to take half of the number of beneficiaries. Recalculation shows that 3,027 women had extra income due to the project. This represents about 40% of all of the beneficiaries, which is a bit less than the percentage derived using approach 1 ( reporting by the chairperson). When extended to include indirect beneficiaries, this brings the total to 19,678. Intermediate Results Indicators Indicator Name Core Unit of Measure Baseline Current End Target Direct project beneficiaries Number Value 7634.00 7634.00 Public Disclosure Copy Date 10-Sep-2009 29-May-2012 30-Jun-2012 Comments The above figure of 7634 is the number of direct beneficiaries of the project. The previous number of 19678 the number of indirect beneficiaries, including the members of the household. Female beneficiaries Percentage Value 7634.00 2993.00 Page 4 of 10 The World Bank Report No: ISR9063 Sub Type Supplemental Interim prefabricated buildings, furniture and Yes/No Value No Yes Yes Public Disclosure Copy equipment installed Date 30-Jun-2010 31-Mar-2010 Comments Installation is complete and The target has been the ministry is completely achieved. functional. While the ministry is under construction, the project has also rented a space for the ministry staff to be able to have a place to work. Construction of Ministry building completed Yes/No Value No No No Date 10-Sep-2009 26-Oct-2012 31-Dec-2012 Comments The construction of the building has not progressed since the last mission in May 2012. Unfortunately, due to the multiple issues in BOQ the contractor did not perform as per the time frame of MDTF closure in December 2012. The building remains incomplete, the ministry presented their case to the Oversight Committee on December 6th, where it was decided that the ministry continue to seek funding from potential donors bi-laterally. The building remains at 31% completion. Public Disclosure Copy Gender Assessment completed Yes/No Value No Yes Yes Date 10-Sep-2009 29-May-2012 31-Dec-2012 Comments The Country Gender Completed Assessment is now complete. The Comprehensive Gender Assessment contract was awarded to shortlisted firm, UWONET, on 5th July, 2011 and No Objection to the selection was provided in Page 5 of 10 The World Bank Report No: ISR9063 August, 2011. The contract for $250,000 was signed between UWONET and the Ministry of Gender in Public Disclosure Copy September, 2011 and work commenced officially in October. After finalizing an Inception Report in October 2011 UWONET team traveled to the field and conducted interviews throughout November and began work on the final draft report in December 2011.Ministry of Gender and MDTF project team received the final draft in February 2012. The report was finalized with comments from the stakeholders and the final reort was presented in Juba on June 15, 2012 to the interested stakeholders. GoSS and State ministry staff receiving Number Value 52.00 41.00 52.00 capacity building training Date 10-Sep-2009 29-May-2012 30-Jun-2012 Comments The capacity building training Complete component for the state social development ministry staff in all ten states is now complete. A firmconducted an institutional capacity building training for 40 state ministry officials and 12 GoSS staff members. This number reflects the number of staff Public Disclosure Copy who received capacity building training (the previous number of 75 was in error and meant to reflect that 75%of relevant staff received training). In addition to the 41 staff trained, in addition to the above, 91 CBO participants received project management training. Page 6 of 10 The World Bank Report No: ISR9063 Monitoring reports submitted by selected sub- Number Value 0.00 26.00 project implementing agencies Date 10-Sep-2009 29-May-2012 29-Jun-2011 Comments It was found that quarterly Public Disclosure Copy monitoring reports for each of the 108 sub-projects were too cumbersome to undertake. The focal persons in the nistry of social development is now responsible for pro actively monitoring sub-projects. They then report back to the Ministry on a quarterly basis. As of 26 April, 2012, 8 of 10 focal persons have submitted reports for the last quarter. Project staff on board within six months of Percentage Value 7.00 7.00 100.00 project effectiveness Date 10-Sep-2009 30-Jun-2010 31-Dec-2012 Comments The project has all the relevant staff on board including the Project M&E officer, Financial Management Specialist, Procurement Specialist, Project coordinator. The project in addition is supported by the existing staff from the MoGCSW and other sector ministries; this includes experts such as IT staff, and Research and Monitoring Specialist, Gender Specialist from the Directorate of gender, Gender focal staff Public Disclosure Copy from each of the State Social Development ministries and Administrative Officer. Supervision visits to select sub-project sites Number Value 0.00 166.00 Date 10-Sep-2009 29-May-2012 30-Jun-2012 Comments The FM specialist visited the remaining sub-projects in November 2012. All sub- projects have been visited at Page 7 of 10 The World Bank Report No: ISR9063 least once during the project implementation. Target women utilizing at least one new Number Value 7634.00 2037.00 30.00 agricultural production technology or practice Public Disclosure Copy Date 10-Sep-2009 29-May-2012 30-Jun-2012 due to project interventions Comments All sub-projects visited have received training in agriculture production and are using the new techniques. Self- reporting forms indicate that most women are utilizing new agriculture production techniology. 10% of sub-projects that will continue post- Percentage Value 108.00 44.00 10.00 project closure activities Sub Type Supplemental 10% of women joining associations Percentage Value 7634.00 2353.00 10.00 Sub Type Supplemental Subprojects complete by 2012 Number Value 0.00 71.00 94.00 Date 10-Sep-2009 29-May-2012 30-Jun-2012 Comments Subproject implementation is While the implementation is still underway. The final M&E still underway, it is anticipated report is unclear on the that 94 active projects that number of sub-projects that received full funding will be either will be completed and/ complete by December 2012. or continue, this is due to the inability of the target women to provide clear answer to the question. 20% target women recieving training in project Percentage Value 7634.00 1383.00 20.00 related non-farm income generating activites Public Disclosure Copy Date 10-Sep-2009 29-May-2012 31-Dec-2012 Comments Sub-project implementation Almost all women in 50% of underway; supervision visits the sub-projects have to selected sub-projects not received non-farm income yet complete. The numbers generating activities, though indicated are from 15 sub- not all these women have projects visited from Nov taken advantage of these 2010 to Feb 2011. training. 30% Target women receiving training in Percentage Value 7634.00 2624.00 30.00 agricultural production activities Date 10-Sep-2009 29-May-2012 31-Dec-2012 Page 8 of 10 The World Bank Report No: ISR9063 Comments Almost all sub-projects visited have provided training in agriculture production activities. Public Disclosure Copy 20% Target women who perceive an increase Percentage Value 7634.00 2547.00 20.00 in crop yields or harvests due to project Date 10-Sep-2009 29-May-2012 31-Dec-2012 interventions Comments Changes in perception are not yet available as comparable data is not yet available. Data on Financial Performance (as of 15-Nov-2012) Financial Agreement(s) Key Dates Project Ln/Cr/Tf Status Approval Date Signing Date Effectiveness Date Original Closing Date Revised Closing Date P115717 TF-95120 Closed 10-Sep-2009 10-Sep-2009 16-Nov-2009 29-Jun-2011 31-Dec-2012 Disbursements (in Millions) Project Ln/Cr/Tf Status Currency Original Revised Cancelled Disbursed Undisbursed % Disbursed P115717 TF-95120 Closed USD 10.00 10.55 0.00 8.78 1.77 83.00 Disbursement Graph Public Disclosure Copy Page 9 of 10 The World Bank Report No: ISR9063 Key Decisions Regarding Implementation ISR can be disclosed Public Disclosure Copy Restructuring History There has been no restructuring to date. Related Projects There are no related projects. Public Disclosure Copy Page 10 of 10