PROJECT INFORMATION DOCUMENT (PID) IDENTIFICATION/CONCEPT STAGE Report No.: PIDC31312 Public Disclosure Copy Project Name CLEAR - South Asia Region SOUTH ASIA Country South Asia Sector(s) General public administration sector (100%) Theme(s) Other public sector governance (50%), Managing for development results (50%) Lending Instrument Lending Instrument Project ID P156902 Borrower Name J-PAL at Institute of Financial Management and Research Implementing Agency CLEAR Center at IFMR-JPAL Environment Category C - Not Required Date PID Prepared 21-Sep-2015 Estimated Date of Approval 15-Oct-2015 Initiation Note Review The review did authorize the preparation to continue Decision I. Introduction and Context Country Context Regional and Country Context and Stakeholders Public Disclosure Copy This section provides an overview of the relevant context and main entry points for building M&E capacity in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh. The selection of countries and activities is based on IFMR-JPAL’s experience with the sources of demand for services in the previous two grants and with the emerging demands expressed to them by current and potential clients and partners. Paragraphs 11 through 18 provide country-level information on the promising entry points for building M&E capacity and contributing to strengthening government M&E systems in those countries. In the last few years, the governments in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh have all made progress towards establishing and using, to different degrees, national M&E Systems to enable efficient use of resources and effective implementation of programs, and to improve policy choices and decisions. However, many of the government entities are in early stages and are still refining their mandates, strategies, and implementation processes, which provides an excellent opportunity to influence how the systems are designed and implemented and to shape and respond to future demand for M&E. Champions of reform in numerous agencies have expressed the need for credible performance information and are adding impetus to the need and demand for M&E capacity at all levels of government. Civil Society in South Asia has witnessed similar trends. While these organizations are increasingly Page 1 of 12 committed to monitoring performance, accountability, and transparency, and play a crucial role in promoting -effective social sector programs, they often lack the necessary M&E capacity to do this work. These organizations as well as corporate social responsibility (CSR) agencies have recently Public Disclosure Copy shifted towards measuring success through results, as opposed to expenditure and basic outputs, but they also often face capacity gaps. For example, key opinion leaders from organizations such as Pratham, Accountability Initiative, and the Gates Foundation in India, UNICEF in Pakistan, and BRAC, Population Council, and Save the Children in Bangladesh, have all stressed the need for building their capacity both to monitor and measure their own results and to track and evaluate government social sector programs. South Asia is also home to a nascent but flourishing M&E communities of practice, such as the Community of Evaluators (CoE) South Asia (including regional chapters in Nepal, Bangladesh, and Pakistan), the Pakistan Evaluation Network (PEN), and the Sri Lankan Evaluation Association (SLEvA). They are attempting to create forums for increased knowledge-sharing and interaction to exchange practices on M&E, but they have also emphasized the need for enhanced capacity, skills and expertise, to strengthen their networks and profession, improve the quality of the services that they provide to their members, and to advance their awareness-raising work. These communities engage members from government, civil society, and other organizations and provide an excellent forum championing reforms to shift towards evidence-based decision-making. However, these increased needs and demands are not adequately met by the supply side of capacity building services. There is a shortage of practical services related to capacity building for M&E. There are few advisory services on this topic, and high quality M&E courses and training programs for skills-building on M&E are relatively scarce. Moreover, supply is predominantly concentrated in university-level programs that do not necessarily address the in-service needs, the on-the-ground M&E realities, or practical aspects of M&E. However, there is some demand from universities as well, to help develop and deliver courses that are best-in-practice technically and meet the needs of future management, evaluation, and public sector officials (e.g., the Indian Institute for Public Disclosure Copy Management and Jayawardanapura University in Sri Lanka). The main areas that IFMR-JPAL has identified to respond to this context are: 1) raising the knowledge and skills of current and prospective M&E staff; 2) increasing the organizational capacities to produce evaluative evidence, widening the coverage of evaluations, their relevance and their quality; 3) strengthening the links between the information generated and policy making, planning, and budgeting and leading conversations on best strategies on how coordinate M&E systems. Specific demands, promising entry points and examples per country are noted below. India: The Indian Evaluation Office (IEO) was formally set up in 2013 and began developing an agenda for national evaluation. However, it was disbanded in September 2014 due to change in government. Subsequently, the Planning Commission was reorganized and renamed the National Institute for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, which will take on many of the previous responsibilities of the Planning Commission, with the possibility that it will commission more independent evaluation activities through the Program Evaluation Office (PEO). This reorganization provides an opportunity to shape the institutional design of the M&E system at the national level. Accompanying the institutional developments, the Government of India has expressed a commitment to training civil service government officials in basic M&E and is interested in making this curricula part of the standard civil service training. The Indian Administrative and Economic Page 2 of 12 Services have demanded training on impact evaluation, data collection, monitoring systems, and the importance of evidence-based policymaking for both entry-level and mid-level staff. Public Disclosure Copy Different line ministries have also focused on capacity building for M&E. For example, The National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD), a training division within the Ministry of Rural Development, offers a brief introduction to monitoring in their subject-specific courses (watershed development, women’s leadership, rural development, etc.) and is now demanding more comprehensive training in M&E. In addition, several states have expressed a strong interest in M&E. For example, the Government of Tamil Nadu (GoTN) has demanded a comprehensive diagnostic of the state on M&E capacity, custom courses, and advice for future evaluations and monitoring systems. The Government of Rajasthan has similarly demanded support with quantitative data collection for large scale surveys. Pakistan: In Pakistan, the Planning Commission and the provincial Development Departments have been charged with undertaking studies and state policy development initiatives to improve government programs and performance. However, the capacity of these bodies is relatively weak, with weak M&E systems required to underpin their core work. The Federal Minister for Planning and Development stated “The Planning Commission had done no proper work during the last 14 years” . The situation is similar across other line departments. To improve this situation, there is an opportunity to provide capacity building services for M&E. Sri Lanka: The Ministry of Plan Implementation and its monitoring and evaluation arm, the Department of Foreign Aid and Budget Monitoring, have created a national M&E System. This entity track the performance and outcome indicators that Ministries are required to define with each budget. Additionally, they undertake project reviews and in-depth evaluations of select programs. They have also established a web-based National e-Project Monitoring System to capture the real-time Public Disclosure Copy progress of key programs, and are in the process of creating a National Evaluation Policy. However, the system is still weak, with poor quality data and evaluations, and there is demand to improve the capacities needed for implementation and utilization of M&E both within the Ministry of Plan Implementation and the Line Ministries. Nepal: The Nepal Planning Commission has been making efforts to institutionalize results-based management approaches and to include M&E in all stages of the project planning and management cycle. The government has also instituted a Project for Strengthening the Monitoring and Evaluation System in Nepal (with funding from international donors) and to strengthen M&E capacity and coordination within the National Planning Commission and government ministries. However, the implementation of evaluations and use of evidence remains limited. There is a need to strengthen political will and improve institutional capacity. Bangladesh: The Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) based at the Ministry of Planning has been tasked with the monitoring and evaluation of public sector development projects and with providing project implementation support to all Ministries/Divisions through a central management information system. It reports the progress of implementation of these public sector development projects to the National Economic Council. Though IMED’s core mandate revolves around Page 3 of 12 monitoring and expenditure tracking, there is a growing emphasis on results-based M&E, thus highlighting the need for developing capacity for M&E and evidence-based decision-making at all stages of the policy cycle. Public Disclosure Copy Sectoral and Institutional Context Please see under Country Context (Regional and Country Context and Stakeholders). Relationship to CAS/CPS/CPF The Grant is aligned with and will support the World Bank Group’s South Asia Regional Strategy, in which accountability, transparency and public sector reform feature high on the list of priorities for the South Asia region. The regional strategy highlights that the Bank … is driving a culture change to promote frank discussions about governance and accountability . And that stronger public accountability can play an important role in achieving accelerated growth and faster human development. This emphasis on accountability implies the need for strengthening the underlying systems for M&E. This grant is also well aligned with the World Bank Country Assistance/Partnership Strategies/ Frameworks (CASs, CPSs, CPFs) for the different countries, as a cross-cutting area to strengthen the mechanisms that support the achievement of results In India, the CPS for FY 2013-17 states that the overarching goal of rapid poverty reduction and increased shared prosperity will be achieved by focusing on three broad engagement areas: (i) integration; (ii) transformation; and (iii) inclusion. A focus on improved governance … runs across all three engagement areas. Institutional development plays a key role … whereas strengthened accountability is critical for social inclusion. More specifically, the World Bank will work with counterparts at the national and state levels to scale up support in performance-based public management, e-governance, public procurement and financial management, M&E, (…) and Public Disclosure Copy supporting social accountability mechanisms” . On the topic of M&E, the CAS states that “Benefits from strengthening M&E can be gauged from project experience. Those projects which have put in place working M&E systems have not only demonstrated stronger links to sustainable results but have become vehicles for innovation and knowledge sharing in India and beyond (…). The positive experience with project risk management may suggest approaches that could be applied to M&E and related learning” . It also emphasizes that states that “Support for centrally sponsored schemes and national projects will focus on capacity and institution building ”. In Pakistan, The World Bank CPS for Pakistan for FY2015-19 recognizes that an increased focus on results is critical to achieving transformational change in Pakistan. In Sri Lanka, the CPS FY 2013-16 aims to move towards increasing emphasis on results in all sectors. In Nepal, the CAS for FY2014-2018 emphasizes that “WBG activities will contribute to improving the effectiveness, efficiency and accountability of public expenditure”. In Bangladesh, the CAS for FY2011-2014 mentioned that “the Bank group will work to strengthen country capacity to manage for results (… and) play a leading role in working with Government and other stakeholders to define a national development results framework” . “Equally important will be planned efforts (…) to raise awareness and strengthen capacity among implementing agencies to manage for results." II. Project Development Objective(s) Page 4 of 12 Proposed Development Objective(s) The grant seeks to contribute to M&E information being increasingly used to make policy and program decisions and the strengthening of country monitoring and evaluation systems in South Public Disclosure Copy Asia. Key Results The PDO level results indicators are: (a) Strategic clients gain awareness of, knowledge in, and the motivation to use, M&E approaches, methods, tools, and findings (b) Actual and potential M&E capacity providers gain awareness of, knowledge in, and the motivation to use CLEAR’s services and knowledge regarding “how to” and “what works” in developing M&E capacity (c) IFMR-JPAL is financially and institutionally viable III. Preliminary Description Concept Description CLEAR is a multilateral partnership established in 2010 to support a network of centers through recipient executed grants to strengthen monitoring and evaluation (M&E) capacities and systems in the World Bank Group’s client countries. The centers develop, deliver (locally and regionally), and share knowledge regarding high-quality M&E capacity development services for government agencies, civil society, the private sector, academia, as well as for other providers of M&E capacity building services. The grants function as seed funding to establish and strengthen the centers, and help them develop their workprograms and strategies, materials and expertise in order to become self-financing by the end of the program, currently estimated for 2018. CLEAR currently support such centers in competitively selected academic institutions in Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Senegal, and South Africa. Public Disclosure Copy The Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) implements the program in line with its mandate to build client capacity in evaluation, serving as the CLEAR Global Hub, or secretariat. CLEAR complements and builds on the experience of the well-respected International Program for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET) , established by IEG 15 years ago in collaboration with Carleton University in Canada. CLEAR’s Trust Fund is supported by the evaluation offices of nine major multilateral and bilateral donors: the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Australian government (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade), the Belgian Development Cooperation Agency, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Swedish International Development, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and the UK Department for International Development. The Jameel Poverty Action Lab South Asia at the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR-JPAL) in India was competitively selected in 2010 to implement the CLEAR program and to establish the CLEAR Center in South Asia (CLEAR SA). IFMR-JPAL will provide a range of sustained, context-relevant high quality and cost-effective capacity building activities on M&E to strategic clients in government, civil society, the private sector, academia and other providers of M&E capacity building services. The grant will be Page 5 of 12 organized around three components: 1) Capacity Building Activities for IFMR-JPAL, to strengthen IFMR-JPAL’s own capacities and visibility 2) Capacity Development Services for Clients, to provide strategic clients with capacity building services, including training, technical advisory, Public Disclosure Copy knowledge products, applied research, outreach, and M&E network support 3) Monitoring and Evaluation of the CLEAR activities, to assess the effectiveness of the program in South Asia, implement course corrections and learn from implementation. Please see the “Component 2: Capacity Development Services for Clients” for a description of the Strategy through details of the intermediate outcomes, or business lines. Component 1: Capacity Building Activities for IFMR-JPAL: Component One will aim to strengthen the internal capacity of the Center. This includes ensuring that the Center is adequately staffed and has the skills and expertise necessary to deliver high- quality technical advisory and capacity building services. It also includes the Center’s plans to gain more visibility among strategic stakeholders in South Asia through improved networks and communications. In order to meet the objectives of Component One, the Center will engage in a variety of internal capacity building activities, which will help develop its management, administrative, and professional capacities. Management and Administrative Capacity The Center will strengthen its management and administrative capacity by hiring and retaining the necessary staff to deliver its work program. The Center will also engage in Learning from Performance Reviews (LEAP) to ensure that there is continuous learning. The Center’s communication plan includes expanding the content and information on its website, as well as developing a stronger presence on online blogs and discussion forums. Public Disclosure Copy Professional Capacity CLEAR SA has actively recruited J-PAL South Asia research staff (host institution staff not currently part of the core CLEAR team). The Center is also drawing upon select individuals from its wide network of academics and M&E professionals to develop and deliver capacity building services. The Center will continue working under the guidance of its Regional Advisory Committee (RAC) to manage its strategic direction in the region. The RAC provides key inputs on developing professional capacity, as well as necessary information on M&E needs and trends in South Asia. The RAC – made up of external advisors nominated by CLEAR SA and approved in 2013 by the CLEAR Board of Directors - meets approximately twice a year and be called upon for advice on an ad-hoc basis. The RAC currently has members from India and Sri Lanka, and will be expanded to include members from Bangladesh and Pakistan. In addition to the RAC meetings, the Center will engage with key M&E stakeholders both throughout South Asia and globally. Globally, the Center’s staff and key stakeholders will participate in CLEAR’s global forums and meetings, which will bring together other centers operating under the CLEAR program and the CLEAR Global Hub. Regionally, the Center’s staff and affiliates will participate in regional evaluation conferences, where they will present evaluations Page 6 of 12 and conduct workshops. Additionally, the Center will organize in-house training activities for its staff. These include an Public Disclosure Copy annual week long internal staff training on managing evaluations, biweekly brownbag lunches on topics ranging from the current policy climate in South Asia to innovative M&E methods, as well as field visits to ongoing evaluations and capacity building activities led by partners. Together, these activities will provide the CLEAR South Asia Regional Center the necessary skills and knowledge to design and implement targeted, effective monitoring and evaluation capacity building programs. Component 2: Capacity Development Services for Clients Component 2 will provide capacity development services for clients, will develop and share knowledge/learning on the “how to” of building M&E capacity, and contribute to CLEAR Global Knowledge Hub. The activities undertaken under this component are divided into business lines which focus on specific intermediate outcomes. The main areas the program will address are: 1) raising the knowledge and skills of current and prospective M&E staff; 2) increasing the organizational capacities to produce evaluative evidence, widening the coverage of evaluations, their relevance and their quality; 3) strengthening the links between the information generated and policy making, planning, and budgeting and leading conversations on best strategies on how coordinate M&E systems. These areas will be addressed through the specifically targeted business lines described below. The business lines were developed during the second grant. BUSINESS LINE 1: Building Skills/Awareness for High Quality Impact Evaluation & Data Collection Among Policymakers, Practioners, and Researchers IFMR-JPAL has focused on building skills and awareness for high-quality impact evaluation and Public Disclosure Copy data collection, among a wide-range of partners and clients (i.e. the Indian Economic Service). It maintains a portfolio of activities which aim to jointly affect the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of partners and clients towards impact evaluation and high-quality data collection. This includes a portfolio of open-enrollment and customized courses, as well as technical advisory services. The Center employs a comprehensive approach towards this business line, in which each individual activity has multiple objectives. The intended outcomes of each comprehensive activity are: (1) clients increase knowledge of impact evaluation and data collections, (2) clients positively change attitudes towards impact evaluation and data collection, (3) clients go on to commission and/or fund impact evaluations, (4) clients themselves conduct impact evaluations and high-quality data collection. The activities described below will continue in the third grant period. Executive Education: Impact Evaluation The flagship activity for this Business Line is the Executive Education Course. This course is targeted at practitioners, policymakers and academics. It focuses on understanding the necessity for rigor and scientific evidence, thinking about creative strategies in M&E within the context of the participants’ work, and managing common pitfalls of program implementation and impact evaluation. The goal is for participants to be able to identify research opportunities within their organizations, advocate for rigorous evaluation, be better consumers of evidence, and gain preliminary skills to conduct rigorous evaluations (particularly among participants from academic Page 7 of 12 institutions). To this end, participants work with their counterparts from different communities (e.g. donor, academic, practitioner, policymaker, etc.) to develop potential evaluation ideas. At its core, this process is meant to help participants understand what goes into designing and implementing an Public Disclosure Copy impact evaluation. Open Enrollment M&E Courses IFMR-JPAL has developed a set of other open enrollment courses (Measurement & Survey Design in India, Basic M&E in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, etc.) with a fee-based model. Thus far, these courses have been high in demand. IFMR-JPAL plans to continue these courses, as they provide a good opportunity to bring together different partners from different sectors, building their knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors towards high-quality M&E. The main objective of these open enrolment courses is to provide a basic understanding of measurement, data collection, and impact evaluation, which can then be translated into using, commissioning/funding, and/or conducting high-quality evaluations and data collection. Technical Assistance and Custom Courses for Civil Servants Since 2013, IFMR-JPAL has been conducting Monitoring and Evaluation trainings for the Indian Economic Services (IES) and Indian Administrative Services (IAS), as well as providing advisory services for the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) (the premier civil service training institute in India). The trainings includes a combination of technical lectures, case studies, guest lectures from prominent government officials and M&E professionals, as well as the option of group work to design their own impact evaluation. This activity focuses on working with the top-level civil servants in India, who have the decision-making power to commission evaluations and use evaluations to inform future policies. Targeting this group is also strategic, in that both the IAS and IES remain in the government for the tenure of their career, regardless of Public Disclosure Copy political leadership. Technical Assistance and Custom Courses for Civil Society IFMR-JPAL is working with civil society organizations (including BRAC, Breakthrough, Education Alliance, etc.) to develop their awareness and skills of M&E. These are customized courses and technical advisory services on new and ongoing evaluations, including developing data collection plans. For each engagement, IFMR-JPAL conducts an in-depth mixed-methods needs assessment. The needs assessment informs the content of the custom course and/or technical advisory service, as well as the specific objectives for the engagement. BUSINESS LINE 2: Strengthening State Government M&E Practices IFMR-JPAL is working with state governments (e.g., Government of Haryana, Government of Tamil Nadu) to strengthen their monitoring and evaluations systems. These are longer-term engagements in which the Center conducts a needs assessment and diagnostic exercise of M&E practices within various departments/ministries at the state level. After the diagnostic review, IFMR- JPAL proposes a series of technical advisory services and custom workshops to address any gaps in M&E practices (data collection, monitoring, outcome tracking, etc.). This service is fully subsidized for the client for an initial period, after which the state government will take personnel costs Page 8 of 12 associated with the activities. BUSINESS LINE 3: Raising Awareness for High Quality M&E Public Disclosure Copy As part of its ongoing outreach activities, IFMR-JPAL organizes knowledge-sharing activities, including roundtables on best practices in M&E. These are a series of half-day events, which cover fundamental topics in monitoring and evaluation, and target government and civil society organizations in South Asia, including those partners that may be unable to attend multiple-day or in-person workshops. Topics of these roundtables are both method-specific (qualitative methods, mixed-methods, participatory approaches, collecting data for scale-ups, etc.), as well as topic/theme- specific (evaluation and gender, evaluation and crime, monitoring education and training, etc.). IFMR-JPAL also delivers presentations at external conferences and trainings on the importance of high-quality evaluation and evidence-based policymaking (e.g., Sri Lankan Evaluation Association conference, Community of Evaluators-South Asia Conclave, World Bank – BRAC conference on impact evaluation, 3ie-Asian Development Bank conference, etc.). The Center also contributes to onl ine blogs and publications, highlighting the importance of prioritizing M&E in decision- making. BUSINESS LINE 4: Diagnosing and Strengthening Regional and International M&E Networks In order to build regional and international M&E networks, IFMR-JPAL provides support to M&E networks and evaluation associations in the form of: (1) sponsorships to attend evaluation field- building events, (2) organizing panels and workshops for regional and international M&E conferences, and (3) partnering on advocacy and outreach events. BUSINESS LINE 5: Building Local Institutions’ Capacities to Conduct Rigorous Evaluations Public Disclosure Copy Throughout South Asia, there is a high demand for evaluation skills training, but very few institutions that provide this service. IFMR-JPAL has worked to develop relationships with top-level universities (Indian Institute of Management – Bangalore, Indian Institute of Management – Ahmedabad) that have expressed an interest in M&E short courses and semester-long curriculum at the post-graduate level. Additionally, it has received requests from the Sri Jayawardanapura University in Sri Lanka to conduct lectures and develop content for an M&E diploma course. As there is a growing demand for M&E training at the university level, IFMR-JPAL is working to further these services. It will also conduct similar courses for non-university research organizations (i.e, International Center for Integrated Mountain Development), in order to further build local researcher capacity to conduct high-quality evaluations. Business Line 5 specifically works to develop the technical skills of current and future researchers to conduct high-quality evaluations. It also creates an awareness of high-quality research. One of the final deliverables of Business Line 5 is the creation of university-level curriculum (syllabi, presentations, case studies, etc.) which can be shared and used by other evaluation capacity development providers. IFMR-JPAL plans on sharing these resources with universities throughout the region, as well as the other regional centers. Business Line 6: Conducting and Sharing Research and Generating Evidence on 'How To Do' High Page 9 of 12 Quality M&E As part of IFMR-JPAL’s commitment to promoting high-quality research and data collection, it is Public Disclosure Copy working to conduct research on best practices in M&E. This will include research projects on developing parsimonious survey instruments, when/how to use digital data collection, and best practices in grassroots M&E. IFMR-JPAL will work disseminate this research through knowledge products for M&E practitioners. By June 2018, the Center will share developed knowledge products and “how to” documents on the CLEAR wikispaces/C4D, based in IEG. Business Line 7: Sharing research and lessons on “How to do” quality Evaluation Capacity Development (ECD). IFMR-JPAL will produce and share knowledge and knowledge products related to the lessons that IFMR-JPAL has learned on “how to do” evaluation capacity building through the planning and implementation of the various activities in the other business lines. The LEAP reviews will surface this knowledge and identify the lessons that are worth to be codified and shared. These lessons will be targeted towards CLEAR centers and other providers of ECD services. Activities in this business line will often be implemented in combination with activities in the other business lines. For example, related to Business line 1, IFMR-JPAL is currently undertaking a review of past participants in the Executive Education course on Impact Evaluation, starting from 2007. This will involve an in-depth quantitative and qualitative tracer survey and the end product will b ea set of guidelines on best practices in targeting the correct audience, ensuring that the content is relevant for the audience, and how to successfully conduct training follow-ups. Related to Business Line 2, work might be undertaken on how to conduct the nee ds assessments and diagnostic work. In relation to Business Line 5, work might be undertaken in sharing how to knowledge on ECD with the local institutions that they will be working with, etc. Public Disclosure Copy Component 3: Monitoring and Evaluation of the CLEAR activities Under Component Three, IFMR_JPAL will collect and keep systematic electronic information on its operations, and provide quarterly monitoring data and annual reports to the CLEAR program at IEG. It will also provide annual audit reports (coinciding with IFMR’s financial year). The monitoring information will include: Course descriptions (including their objectives, intended audiences, participant selection criteria [if any], dates, duration, faculty, and fees/costs); standardized data on participant participation (disaggregated by gender, nationality, organization type) for each training/workshop; assessment of quality and usefulness of each training/workshop and advisory services (using standardized quality assessment tools); and records on the objectives of each set of advisory or evaluation services. Where a package of services, bundling workshops, advice, evaluations, etc. is provided to a group of clients, IFMR-JPAL will also develop concept notes articulating the overall objectives of the package of services and the rationale for the package to be provided. Additionally, IFMR-JPAL is working to develop a comprehensive monitoring, evaluation, and learning strategy for its programs. The Center will use rigorous qualitative methods (detailed needs Page 10 of 12 assessments, surveys, participant and partner interviews, and field visits) and quantitative tracer and follow-up surveys to track capacity building activities, learning outcomes, and longer-term impacts for key clients. These longer-term impacts for IFMR-JPAL’s clients may include: a better Public Disclosure Copy understanding of impact evaluation, changing attitudes towards evidence-based decision making, conducting more internal M&E, using data and evaluation research to inform decision making, and providing evaluation capacity building for other regional organizations. These learnings will be shared with other CLEAR regional offices and other ECD providers. Finally, the Center will conduct annual reviews of its performance (the Learning from Performance (LEAP) reviews) to assess its performance and make adjustments to it portfolio of business lines.. See also Component 1. IV. Safeguard Policies that Might Apply Safeguard Policies Triggered by the Project Yes No TBD Environmental Assessment OP/BP 4.01 ✖ Natural Habitats OP/BP 4.04 ✖ Forests OP/BP 4.36 ✖ Pest Management OP 4.09 ✖ Physical Cultural Resources OP/BP 4.11 ✖ Indigenous Peoples OP/BP 4.10 ✖ Involuntary Resettlement OP/BP 4.12 ✖ Safety of Dams OP/BP 4.37 ✖ Projects on International Waterways OP/BP 7.50 ✖ Projects in Disputed Areas OP/BP 7.60 ✖ V. Financing (in USD Million) Public Disclosure Copy Total Project Cost: 1.05 Total Bank Financing: 0 Financing Gap: 0 Financing Source Amount ECD FOR REGIONAL CENTERS 1.05 VI. Contact point World Bank Contact: Elena Ximena Fernandez Ordonez Title: Evaluation Officer Tel: 458-5597 Email: xfernandezordone@worldbank.org Borrower/Client/Recipient Name: J-PAL at Institute of Financial Management and Research Contact: Shobhini Mukherji Title: Executive Director Tel: 918527834910 Email: shobhini.mukherji@ifmr.ac.in Implementing Agencies Page 11 of 12 Name: CLEAR Center at IFMR-JPAL Contact: Urmy Shukla Title: Senior Capacity Building Manager Public Disclosure Copy Tel: 918527834910 Email: urmy.shukla@ifmr.ac.in VII. For more information contact: The InfoShop The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20433 Telephone: (202) 458-4500 Fax: (202) 522-1500 Web: http://www.worldbank.org/infoshop Public Disclosure Copy Page 12 of 12