The World Bank STRENGTHENING DRR COORDINATION, PLANNING AND POLICY ADVISORY CAPACITY OF SADC (P163486) REPORT NO.: RES42864 RESTRUCTURING PAPER ON A PROPOSED PROJECT RESTRUCTURING OF STRENGTHENING DRR COORDINATION, PLANNING AND POLICY ADVISORY CAPACITY OF SADC APPROVED ON NOVEMBER 12, 2017 TO SADC SECRETARIAT URBAN, RESILIENCE AND LAND AFRICA EAST Regional Vice President: Hafez M. H. Ghanem Country Director: Deborah L. Wetzel Global Director: Sameh Naguib Wahba Tadros Practice Manager/Manager: Meskerem Brhane Task Team Leader(s): Prashant Singh The World Bank STRENGTHENING DRR COORDINATION, PLANNING AND POLICY ADVISORY CAPACITY OF SADC (P163486) ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ACP African, Caribbean, Pacific Group of States CCA Climate Change Adaptation DRM Disaster Risk Management DRR Disaster Risk Reduction EU European Union EWS Early Warning System PDO Project Development Objective REC Regional Economic Community RIASCO Regional Inter Agency Standing Committee SADC Southern African Development Community SARCOF Southern African Regional Climate Outlook Forums SHOC SADC Humanitarian and Operations Center The World Bank STRENGTHENING DRR COORDINATION, PLANNING AND POLICY ADVISORY CAPACITY OF SADC (P163486) 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 P163486 Investment Project Financing Original EA Category Current EA Category Approval Date Current Closing Date 12-Nov-2017 31-Aug-2020 Organizations Borrower Responsible Agency SADC Secretariat SADC DRR unit Financing (in USD Million) FIN_SUMM_PUB_TBL SUMMARY Total Project Cost 0 Total Financing 0 Financing Gap 0 DETAILS -NewFin3 The World Bank STRENGTHENING DRR COORDINATION, PLANNING AND POLICY ADVISORY CAPACITY OF SADC (P163486) Project Development Objective (PDO) Original PDO The development objective of the project is to strengthen the disaster resilience of Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states through regional collaboration and improved coordination, planning, policy advisory and knowledge dissemination capacity of SADC. OPS_TABLE_PDO_CURRENTPDO Summary Status of Financing (US$, Millions) Net TF Approval Signing Effectiveness Closing Commitment Disbursed Undisbursed TF-A6148 27-Jun-2018 21-Aug-2018 05-Oct-2018 31-Aug-2020 2.50 1.65 .85 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. Current Status 1. The grant package was initially prepared in 2017 in close collaboration with the SADC DRR unit for the amount of US$1.25 million. Following the meeting of the Country Director and the World Bank Special Envoy to SADC on April 11, 2018, it was agreed – upon request from SADC - to provide the overall project funding of US$2.5 million in one phase instead of two phases of US$1.25 million each. This restructuring was granted in July 2018 and the project became effective in October 2018. The project was then extended from December 31, 2019 to May 31, 2020 to increase the implementation period from 15 to 20 months and in a second extension from June 1, 2020 to August 31, 2020 to provide additional time due to the restrictions related to the COVID19 pandemic. The overall short implementation period and capacity constraints of SADC has been noted by World Bank’s management. 2. The cumulative disbursements are at 66%, while the majority of the remaining resources are committed in the contracts for the consultancy firms and PIU experts. With the beginning of the COVID19 pandemic and related restrictions, which went into effect on March 7, 2019, project implementation was largely paused between March and June 2020. 3. Since the effectiveness of the grant in October 2018, the project coordinator / Senior Programme Officer for DRR at SADC has changed in February 2019. Subsequently, implementation shifted to a focus on strengthening disaster The World Bank STRENGTHENING DRR COORDINATION, PLANNING AND POLICY ADVISORY CAPACITY OF SADC (P163486) preparedness and response planning, and increasing coordination and recovery planning following cyclones Kenneth and Idai, which hit Southern Africa in early 2019. 4. On the operational side, SADC has made substantial progress. With the recruitment of the experts of the Project Implementation Unit in September 2019 (financial management expert, procurement expert, team assistant), as well as the selection of consulting firms for four major assignments in November 2019, SADC substantially increased the necessary project implementation capacity. The four consultancy assignments (a. Mainstreaming of Disaster Risk Reduction into SADC Secretariat development plans and strategies through analysis, b. Operationalization of the national and regional Disaster Risk Reduction information and knowledge management systems in the SADC region, c. Review of DRR policy and strategic frameworks in SADC member states to align with Sendai framework, Africa Union DRR plan of action and SADC DRR policy frameworks, d. SADC preparedness and response mechanism) are implemented by two consulting firms, which have commenced desk reviews, consultations with the SADC secretariat, member states and regional stakeholders in December 2019. A one-week consultation meeting was successfully conducted in January 2020 in Johannesburg providing guidance from the perspective of regional stakeholders. To the extent possible, these consultancy assignments have been conducted in a largely “virtual” manner with desktop studies, phone and video calls, but with limited interaction with the SADC member states. 5. In addition to the work of the consulting firms, SADC has organized a number of regional meetings and trainings focusing on disaster preparedness in the region. In June 2019, SADC organized in Windhoek (Namibia) a regional meeting to coordinate preparedness measures for drought in the region. In August 2019, the SADC Climate Service Center organized the regional climate outlook forum in Luanda (Angola) and discussed the impacts of the El Niño phenomena for the region. Discussions on contingency planning were further advanced in January in Johannesburg (South Africa) through the multi-dimensional meeting on the standby force for humanitarian interventions. In September 2019, SADC conducted a Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) training in Pretoria (South Africa) with 27 participants, jointly supported by experts from World Bank, UNDP and European Union. Other training activities relate to the concept of ecosystem based DRR (together with the workshop in June in Windhoek) and to seasonal preparedness planning. In total, 113 people participated in different training activities organized by SADC. 6. In February 2020, SADC convened the first meeting of the Ministers responsible for Disaster Risk Reduction from 17-21 February 2020 in Zanzibar (Tanzania). The meeting discussed the acceleration of the operationalization of the preparedness and response mechanism, regional policy proposals and joint response to disasters in the region, including the COVID19 pandemic. Between early March 2020 and June 2020, most engagements have been paused in the region due to the COVID19 pandemic and slowly restarted from June 2020 onwards. 7. Project management and coordination are guided by a project steering committee, which is composed of representatives from the different departments of SADC and the World Bank, plus the European Union as observer. So far, seven project steering committees were conducted, including the last two meetings in a virtual manner in March and June 2020. B. Rationale for Restructuring The World Bank STRENGTHENING DRR COORDINATION, PLANNING AND POLICY ADVISORY CAPACITY OF SADC (P163486) 8. Since March 2020, the COVID19 pandemic has affected the SADC region. On March 7, 2020, SADC cancelled all missions of SADC staff and in this context also the planned Bank’s implementation support mission was cancelled. The project steering committee meetings were implemented in a virtual manner on March 17, 2020 and on June 3, 2020. While it was initially expected that the COVID19 pandemic would have an impact of several months until May or June 2020, restrictions are expected to last substantially longer than anticipated. Among others, in South Africa, restrictions related to the COVID19 pandemic have been extended until August 2020. It is expected that the COVID19 pandemic and health crisis will continue to have impacts throughout the region and will limit travel and meetings for the next months to come and at least until the last quarter of calendar year 2020. The planned SADC Regional DRR conference (initially for April 2020 planned in Tanzania) has been postponed, indefinitely. In addition, SADC Secretariat is looking into the options for supporting member states in response to the COVID19 pandemic and resulting economic impacts. 9. The task team has worked closely with the SADC DRR Unit to support the implementation of the project. Seven project steering committee meetings were conducted to monitor the overall progress of implementation and provide the project team with strategic directions for implementation. The steering committee from June 3, 2020 recommended a substantial extension of the project closing date by several months to overcome the challenges and restrictions imposed by the COVID19 pandemic and ensure that all ongoing contracts and assignments can be wrapped up. It is clear that the initially granted extension until August 31, 2020 could not help overcome the implementation constraints related to the COVID19 pandemic. 10. Following substantial challenges of SADC to implement the grant in the initial phase of the project, SADC has tried to overcome internal administrative hurdles and to accelerate the execution of project activities. The project implementation unit was recruited in September 2019, and four major firm consultancies were awarded in November 2019, which substantially increased disbursements. As of July 2020, disbursements to the designated account were at 66%, with the resources committed largely in consultancy contracts. To allow SADC a full implementation of the grant and support member states in its response to COVID19, the Bank project team has conducted detailed analysis of the current status and work program prepared by SADC after receiving the official request on July 13, 2020, an extension of the grant until May 31, 2021 is justified. Therefore, the project team has reached out to GFDRR, the funding source management unit, and obtained its endorsement for SADC’s request. II. DESCRIPTION OF PROPOSED CHANGES 11. Overall, the project objectives, proposed components, activities and budget will remain the same, but the project closing date will be extended until May 31, 2021. This is the third extension of closing date since the project became effective. The project will continue to have a strong focus on disaster preparedness and response coordination and will thereby be an important building block for SADC to respond to the COVID19 crisis. 12. Project implementation will continue to count on the existing SADC staff from the SADC Disaster Risk Reduction Unit and other parts of the organization. An overview on the project components and their budget is provided below (see also table “components” below). A. Detailed Changes The World Bank STRENGTHENING DRR COORDINATION, PLANNING AND POLICY ADVISORY CAPACITY OF SADC (P163486) 13. With the proposed new closing date of May 31, 2021, it is expected that the original planned activities will be implemented to achieve the overall PDOs and the anticipated results of the project. The implementation timeframe will still be compressed as many activities are currently paused since March 7, 2020. The virtual project steering committee meetings on March 17, 2020 and June 3, 2020, confirmed the intention and commitment of SADC to implement all activities despite the challenges related to the COVID19 pandemic. With this, the task team has approached the grant manager (Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery) which has confirmed its in principle support for the no cost extension and created enabling conditions for it. There is no outstanding audit for the project and no outstanding audit issues either. An audit exception for the first six months of implementation of the project has been approved by the FM Manager, effectively allowing one audit for the period from effectiveness of the project in October 2018 till the unrevised interim Project Closing Date of May 31, 2020, which will become due in November 2020. 14. The detailed implementation plan including budget by components is stated below: (a) Component 1: Enhancing regional institutional coordination mechanisms for disaster preparedness and response (USD 1.1 million): (i) This component finances a consultancy study and the consultation with member states for the development of a feasibility study for the SADC Humanitarian and Emergency Operations Center (SHOC), including a regional consultation with member states, and drafting of an operation manual. The procurement of basic equipment necessary to ensure the operation of the SHOC has been adjusted to essential equipment to kick start the SHOC. In addition, some additional procurement may be foreseen to respond to concrete demands from member states in response to the COVID19 pandemic. (ii) The component also supports the operationalization of the SADC Disaster Preparedness Fund, including operational rules, guidance on adequate governance structures for this fund, as well as simulation exercises and contingency planning at regional and national level. Activities under point (i) and point (ii) are under implementation through one consultancy contract. (b) Component 2: Operationalize national and regional disaster risk reduction information and knowledge management systems (USD 629,000). The component is currently implemented through a firm consultancy assignment: (i) A consultancy firm supports the development of a knowledge sharing and information management portal and will provide guidance on data sharing and management data and provide guidance for improving data and information exchange. (ii) The regional SADC DRR Conference, initially planned for April 2020 in Tanzania, has been postponed. Depending on the situation related to the COVID19 pandemic, the conference would be postponed to late March, April or May 2021. (c) Component 3: Enhancing Mainstreaming of DRR in development plan and strategies (USD 186,000). Activities of component 3 are also implemented through a firm consultancy contract and include support to DRR monitoring in different sector activities and an analysis of mainstreaming in different sectors. Activities related to Strengthening the regional DRR policy advocacy and capacity development program have been reduced and integrated into the other components. The World Bank STRENGTHENING DRR COORDINATION, PLANNING AND POLICY ADVISORY CAPACITY OF SADC (P163486) (d) Component 4: Strengthening the implementation and coordination capacity at the SADC Regional Disaster Risk Reduction Programme (USD 523,000). The costs for the PIU (team assistant, procurement expert, financial management expert) was initially covered until the completion of the project, plus coordination meetings with DRR focal points from member states, as well as a regional DRR conference in 2021 and support to the ministerial meeting on DRR. The PIU has been reduced from initially three to one, with only the financial management expert to continue through the implementation of the project, hence the additional expenses for the implementation of the assignment have been reduced. The additional expense for the financial management expert would however be covered by savings under the same component. (e) Component 5 Auditing and compliance (USD 60,000) summarizes project coordination and operational expenses, including activities related to auditing and compliance. 15. The results framework of the project will however not change at this stage as the main activities will not change but would be implemented in a condensed timeframe. During the last face-to-face implementation support mission in December 2020 and the virtual missions in March 2020 and June 2020, the commitment of SADC to achieving the intended results within a condensed timeframe for implementation was confirmed. 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) ✔ Disbursement Estimates ✔ Implementing Agency ✔ Project's Development Objectives ✔ Results Framework ✔ Components and Cost ✔ Cancellations Proposed ✔ Additional Financing Proposed ✔ Reallocation between Disbursement Categories ✔ Disbursements Arrangements ✔ Change in Overall Risk Rating ✔ Safeguard Policies Triggered ✔ EA category ✔ The World Bank STRENGTHENING DRR COORDINATION, PLANNING AND POLICY ADVISORY CAPACITY OF SADC (P163486) Legal Covenants ✔ Institutional Arrangements ✔ Financial Management ✔ Procurement ✔ Implementation Schedule ✔ Other Change(s) ✔ Economic and Financial Analysis ✔ Technical Analysis ✔ Social Analysis ✔ Environmental Analysis ✔ IV. DETAILED CHANGE(S) OPS_DETAILEDCHANGES_LOANCLOSING_TABLE LOAN CLOSING DATE(S) Original Revised Proposed Proposed Deadline TF Status Closing Closing(s) Closing for Withdrawal Applications 31-May-2020, 31- TF-A6148 Effective 31-Dec-2019 31-May-2021 30-Sep-2021 Aug-2020 OPS_DETAILEDCHANGES_DISBURSEMENT_TABLE DISBURSEMENT ESTIMATES Change in Disbursement Estimates Yes Expected Disbursements (In US$) Fiscal Year Annual Cumulative 2018 0.00 0.00 2019 0.00 0.00 2020 0.00 0.00 2021 0.00 0.00 The World Bank STRENGTHENING DRR COORDINATION, PLANNING AND POLICY ADVISORY CAPACITY OF SADC (P163486) 2022 0.00 0.00 2023 0.00 0.00 Note to Task Teams: End of system generated content, document is editable from here.