The World Bank Development of Agricultural and Rural Statistics in CIS region (P150037) REPORT NO.: RES35583 RESTRUCTURING PAPER ON A PROPOSED PROJECT RESTRUCTURING OF DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURAL AND RURAL STATISTICS IN CIS REGION APPROVED ON FEBRUARY 26, 2014 TO INTERSTATE STATISTICAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES (CISSTAT COMMITTEE) DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA Regional Vice President: Shantayanan Devarajan Country Director: Haishan Fu Senior Global Practice Director: Shantayanan Devarajan Practice Manager/Manager: Grant Cameron Task Team Leader: Olga Vadimovna Shabalina The World Bank Development of Agricultural and Rural Statistics in CIS region (P150037) ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS CIS Commonwealth of Independent States CISSTAT Interstate Statistical Committee of the Commonwealth of Independent States ECASTAT Trust Fund to Support Statistical Capacity Building in Eastern Europe and CIS Countries PDO Project Development Objective NSO National Statistical Offices The World Bank Development of Agricultural and Rural Statistics in CIS region (P150037) Note to Task Teams: The following sections are system generated and can only be edited online in the Portal. BASIC DATA Product Information Project ID Financing Instrument P150037 Investment Project Financing Original EA Category Current EA Category Not Required (C) Not Required (C) Approval Date Current Closing Date 26-Feb-2014 31-Dec-2018 Organizations Borrower Responsible Agency Interstate Statistical Committee of the Commonwealth of Interstate Statistical Committee of the Commonwealth Independent States (CISSTAT Committee), of Independent States (CISSTAT Committee), Financing (in USD Million) FIN_SUMM_PUB_TBL SUMMARY Total Project Cost 0.56 Total Financing 0.00 Financing Gap 0.00 DETAILS -NewFin3 The World Bank Development of Agricultural and Rural Statistics in CIS region (P150037) Project Development Objective (PDO) Original PDO The development objective of the project is to create the framework for national and regional statistical systems which will allow the collection and use of statistical data that are needed in making decisions regarding the development of agriculture in the 21st century. This strategy is based on three pillars which are specific objectives of the Project: o integration of agriculture into the national statistical system in order to meet the users' demand for consistent and compatible data by territories and over time; o improvement of the sustainability of the agricultural statistical system through governance and statistical capacity building; o identifying a minimum set of core data which will be collected by the countries to meet both current and emerging information requirements. OPS_TABLE_PDO_CURRENTPDO Summary Status of Financing Net TF Approval Signing Effectiveness Closing Commitment Disbursed Undisbursed TF-16782 15-Apr-2014 15-Apr-2014 15-Apr-2014 31-Dec-2018 .56 .49 .07 Policy Waiver(s) Does this restructuring trigger the need for any policy waiver(s)? No Note to Task Teams: End of system generated content, document is editable from here. I. PROJECT STATUS AND RATIONALE FOR RESTRUCTURING A. Project Status and Rationale for Restructuring The Grant Agreement # TF016782 to development of the agricultural and rural statistics in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region was signed on April 15, 2014. An Amendment to extend the project closing date to December 31, 2018 and to add additional US$67,000 of grant funds was signed on March 28, 2017. The project is executed by the Interstate Statistical Committee of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CISSTAT) Committee. All activities under the project which amounts now up to US$557,000 are targeted at the improvement of the capacity of the national statistical offices of the CIS countries in the area of agricultural and rural statistics. At present, out of total project funds US$416,000 have been disbursed; US$40,000 have been committed under signed contracts; and the remaining US$101,000 are planned to be spent in 2019. All objectives such as (i) integration of agriculture into the national statistical system in order to meet the users’ demand for consistent and compatible data by territories and over time, (ii) improvement of the sustainability of the agricultural statistical system through governance and statistical capacity building, and (iii) identification of a minimum set of core data which will be collected by the countries to meet The World Bank Development of Agricultural and Rural Statistics in CIS region (P150037) both current and emerging information requirements are close to be met or have already been met. Procurement is satisfactory, and the financial management supervision mission undertaken in October 2018 came up with Satisfactory rating as well. On October 5, 2018 the CISSTAT Committee requested a no-cost extension of the closing date to December 31, 2019. The team suggests considering extending at no cost the project till December 31, 2019, taking into account the following: - Some of remaining and planned project activities are prepared in response to requests of the CIS national statistical offices (NSOs) need to have better coordination with the related activities of the NSOs (conducting the first agricultural census in Belarus in 2019, preparation and compilation of food balances in Tajikistan, etc.) as well as with the work plans of other international organizations and need to be executed in 2019. - New project implementation schedule will contribute to a more efficient dissemination of the project outputs and their introduction into NSO statistical practices in CIS countries. The latter are the direct beneficiaries of these activities and their active participants. - One more year of active project life will create a bridge to a new donor supported Data to End Hunger Initiative to improve agricultural data systems until the full fledge implementation of the initiative. B. Implementation Status Activities of the fourth year of Project implementation (November 2017 – November 2018) comprise consulting service, meetings and seminars. All reports and materials are placed at the website of CISSTAT Committee (http://www.cisstat.org) in the section “Global Strategy to Improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics”). 1. Consulting services (a) A comprehensive proposal and recommendations were prepared on how to improve the agricultural census program for the CIS countries. They were placed on the CISSTAT Committee website in the section “Global Strategy to Improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics” and were sent out to the NSOs of CIS countries for practical application. The objective of this work was to adapt the World Program for the Census of Agriculture 2020, developed under the leadership of FAO, to agricultural practices in CIS countries and to develop unified approaches to agricultural censuses in the CIS region. The outcome of the work will be an improved quality and coverage of agricultural census data compiled by the national statistical services of the CIS countries, both in terms of the source of the minimum set of key data and in terms of creating a universal sampling frame. (b) A work on methodological recommendations for compilation of the system of indicators for assessing the state of food security in the CIS countries is due on December 25, 2018. The results of the assignment will be a systemization of food security indicators and development of methodologies for their compilation to monitor the country's food security in the context of global trends. Keeping in mind that food security has specific dimensions that can vary considerably in different contexts, and that it depends, among other things, on consumption rates, it is advisable to develop different benchmarks for different countries while key parameters are common for the whole world. The outcome of this work should be a significant improvement of quality of food security monitoring conducted by the national statistical offices of CIS countries, and harmonization of these indicators with SDG indicators. (c) Work has started on translating the FAO publication “Guidelines for the compilation of Food Balance Sheets”. 2. Meetings and seminars The World Bank Development of Agricultural and Rural Statistics in CIS region (P150037) (a) Meeting of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) in April 9-13, 2018, Vienna, Austria. The CISSTAT Committee experts play an important role in coordinating the work on developing the system of indicators for agricultural and rural statistics. The results of discussion and recommendations on harmonization of the methodology in various sectors of the economy (including agricultural production) to ensure the maximum cross-sector comparability of data during economic analysis along the whole supply chain will contribute to the establishing of a unified database of agricultural and rural statistics for the CIS region. (b) Expert meeting of the CIS NSOs on agricultural statistics: current status of work and issues of agricultural censuses in September 18-19, 2018, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia. The meeting participants confirmed that the joint work of the national statistical offices and CISSTAT Committee on the project for the implementation of the Global Strategy to Improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics in the CIS region is a good basis for the development of agricultural and rural statistics in the national statistical offices and it contributes to the implementation of the international standards into agricultural statistics. It was noted that the methodological materials prepared by CISSTAT Committee an disseminated among the CIS national statistical offices contribute to the development of the national methodology for agricultural statistics in accordance with international standards. II. DESCRIPTION OF PROPOSED CHANGES C. Change in Closing Date The CISSTAT Committee is requesting a no-cost extension of the closing date from December 31,2018 to December 31, 2019. This will be the second extension of the closing date of the Grant Agreement # TF016782 “Development the agricultural and rural statistics in the CIS region”. The first restructuring, approved on March 28, 2017, included an extension of closing date, a reallocation of grant proceeds and an additional financing in amount of US$67,000. The extension will allow the completion of all activities. More specifically: - Some of remaining and planned project activities are prepared in response to requests of the CIS national statistical offices (NSOs) need to have better coordination with the related activities of the NSOs (conducting the first agricultural census in Belarus in 2019, preparation and compilation of food balances in Tajikistan, etc.) as well as with the work plans of other international organizations and need to be executed in 2019. - It is envisaged to (i) develop a system of indicators for assessing the state of food security in CIS Countries, (ii) develop proposals for preparation of system of agro-ecological indicators and methodology for their formation in accordance with international standards, and (iii) conduct a seminar on project results dissemination and next steps for development of agricultural statistics. - The new project implementation schedule will contribute to a more efficient dissemination of the project outputs and their introduction into NSO statistical practices in CIS countries. The latter are the direct beneficiaries of these activities and their active participants. - One more year of active project life will create a bright to a new donor supported Data to End Hunger initiative to improve agricultural data systems until its full fledge implementation. The World Bank Development of Agricultural and Rural Statistics in CIS region (P150037) There is no change in the PDO, the scope or the nature of project activities or implementation arrangements. Note to Task Teams: The following sections are system generated and can only be edited online in the Portal. III. SUMMARY OF CHANGES Changed Not Changed Loan Closing Date(s) ✔ Implementation Schedule ✔ Implementing Agency ✔ Project's Development Objectives ✔ Results Framework ✔ Components and Cost ✔ Cancellations Proposed ✔ Additional Financing Proposed ✔ Reallocation between Disbursement Categories ✔ Disbursements Arrangements ✔ Disbursement Estimates ✔ Change in Overall Risk Rating ✔ Safeguard Policies Triggered ✔ EA category ✔ Legal Covenants ✔ Institutional Arrangements ✔ Financial Management ✔ Procurement ✔ Other Change(s) ✔ IV. DETAILED CHANGE(S) OPS_DETAILEDCHANGES_LOANCLOSING_TABLE The World Bank Development of Agricultural and Rural Statistics in CIS region (P150037) LOAN CLOSING DATE(S) Original Revised Proposed Proposed Deadline TF Status Closing Closing(s) Closing for Withdrawal Applications TF-16782 Effective 31-Mar-2017 31-Dec-2018 31-Dec-2019 30-Apr-2020 Note to Task Teams: End of system generated content, document is editable from here.