The World Bank CLEAR Center for Francophone Africa Phase 2 (P160703) REPORT NO.: RES44968 RESTRUCTURING PAPER ON A PROPOSED PROJECT RESTRUCTURING OF CLEAR CENTER FOR FRANCOPHONE AFRICA PHASE 2 APPROVED ON FEBRUARY 8, 2018 TO CENTRE AFRICAIN D'ETUDES SUPERIEURES EN GESTION (CESAG) INDEPENDENT EVALUATION GROUP WESTERN AND CENTRAL AFRICA REGION Regional Vice President: Ousmane Diagana Country Director: Nathan Belete Global Director: Sophie Sirtaine Practice Manager/Manager: Jozef Leonardus Vaessen Task Team Leader: R Jason Thomas Mayfield The World Bank CLEAR Center for Francophone Africa Phase 2 (P160703) ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS CLEAR Centers for Learning on Evaluation and Results ECD Evaluation Capacity Development FA Francophone Africa M&E Monitoring and evaluation PDO Project Development Objective RVP Regional Vice President The World Bank CLEAR Center for Francophone Africa Phase 2 (P160703) BASIC DATA Product Information Project ID Financing Instrument P160703 Investment Project Financing Original EA Category Current EA Category Not Required (C) Not Required (C) Approval Date Current Closing Date 08-Feb-2018 31-Dec-2020 Organizations Borrower Responsible Agency Regional Centers for Learning on Evaluation and Results Centre Africain d'Etudes Superieures en Gestion (CESAG) (CLEAR), Francophone Africa Center Financing (in USD Million) FIN_SUMM_PUB_TBL SUMMARY Total Project Cost 0 Total Financing 0 Financing Gap 0 DETAILS -NewFin3 Project Development Objective (PDO) Original PDO The objective of the project is three-fold: (i) strategic clients gain knowledge in, and the motivation to use M&E methods, approaches, tools, and findings; (ii) other M&E capacity providers gain knowledge on evaluation capacity The World Bank CLEAR Center for Francophone Africa Phase 2 (P160703) development (ECD) from CLEAR’s experience on what works and what doesn’t in ECD; and (iii) the CLEAR Center works towards achieving institutional and financial viability. OPS_TABLE_PDO_CURRENTPDO Summary Status of Financing (US$, Millions) Net TF Approval Signing Effectiveness Closing Commitment Disbursed Undisbursed TF-A5250 08-Feb-2018 08-Mar-2018 08-Jun-2018 31-Dec-2020 1.34 .53 .81 Policy Waiver(s) Does this restructuring trigger the need for any policy waiver(s)? No I. PROJECT STATUS AND RATIONALE FOR RESTRUCTURING (i) The current grant (P160703) was approved in February 2018 to the amount of US$1,337,000. This is the first closing date extension for this grant since approval. (ii) The Restructuring Paper proposes to extend the closing date of the grant (TF0A5250) financing the CLEAR Center for Francophone Africa Phase 2 (P160703) from December 30, 2020 to February 26, 2021. This two-month extension is needed to respond to delays in processing the extension in closing date of the Trustee fund (Multi-Donor Trust Fund for Regional Centers for Learning on Evaluation and Results, TF071407), and to enable the grant to remain active and eligible for a further extension until October 29, 2021 (as discussed and agreed by the Donors1). The extension of the Trustee’s end disbursement date from June 30, 2021 to April 30, 2022, has been agreed upon and signed by all donors on December 23, 2020, and the separate request for the extension of the project until October 29, 2021 will be submitted in February 2021. (iii) The products and services of CLEAR Francophone Africa (FA) are in high demand, both nationally and regionally. With ongoing work to support the Center’s regional footprint, CLEAR FA is set to gain more exposure and demand is expected to increase significantly. Due to implementation delays caused by COVID-19 restrictions on travel and social distancing requirements, as well as management changes in the implementing agency, more time is needed for the project to fulfill its commitments as set out in the grant agreement, and fully achieve the project development objective. 1Donors: The African Development Bank (AfDB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Belgian Federal Public Service for Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Development Cooperation, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Rockefeller Foundation, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the Department for International Development (DfID), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and the World Bank Group (WBG). The World Bank CLEAR Center for Francophone Africa Phase 2 (P160703) (iv) The most recent ISR from July 2020 rates the overall implementation progress as Moderately Unsatisfactory (MU) and the progress towards achievement of PDO as Moderately Unsatisfactory. The MU rating is due to the difficulties the implementing agency has had in recruiting adequately skilled staff and as a result has been understaffed. The staffing issue has in turn slowed implementation progress, as a limited number of staff handled a high workload. Additionally, failure to recruit a dedicated FM staff as required by the project resulted in some lapses in oversight as reported by the client and followed-up on in a recent FM mission in September, 2020. The risk to the achievement of the development objective was rated as Substantial in the last ISR, a reflection of the FM issues and COVID-19 impacts on some project activities. (v) The Center has shown moderate progress in the first two Project Development Objectives (PDOs)2, with no signs of progress in the third PDO. Progress on the four PDO indicators3 show that the target has been exceeded on two indicators, while progress remained were under the target on two, as of the ISR from July 2020. (vi) To address these issues and ensure the achievement of the PDO, the implementing agency has recently recruited a new Director and several program officers, and the staff number, capacity, and management within the implementing agency has improved substantially. Therefore, disbursements and delivery of outputs are expected to speed up significantly. Furthermore, the hiring of a dedicated Financial Management (FM) officer is imminent, a recruitment agreed upon during the FM mission. (vii) A virtual supervision mission will be held in January 2021, which will assess the progress made by the implementing agency since the last ISR. With adequate staffing and an action plan in place (see table 1.1 below), the implementing agency has already made significant progress, and the implementation progress rating and the risk rating will be revised after the upcoming supervision meeting. 2 PDO: The objective of the project is three-fold: (i) strategic clients gain knowledge in, and the motivation to use M&E methods, approaches, tools, and findings; (ii) other M&E capacity providers gain knowledge on evaluation capacity development (ECD) from CLEAR’s experience on what works and what doesn’t in ECD; and (iii) the CLEAR Center works towards achieving institutional and financial viability. 3 PDO indicators: 1: “% of CLEAR FA’s strategic clients and M&E capacity providers who rate “increase in knowledge and/or skills” as a result of participating in its training and workshop services, highly”. 2: “% of CLEAR FA’s strategic clients and M&E capacity providers who rate the extent to which they applied concepts learned (for training services) or adopted recommendations made”, and 3: “Number of new knowledge products for strategic clients and M&E capacity providers”. 4: “Proportion of non-CLEAR MDTF funds (including fees for services, and cash contributions from donors and host institution) relative to total funds (including CLEAR MDTF and non-CLEAR MDTF)”. The World Bank CLEAR Center for Francophone Africa Phase 2 (P160703) (viii) In addition to the remedying actions taken on recruitment, the action plan shows which activities will be undertaken to ensure the successful completion of the project. It spans the current requested extension period, and takes into account the anticipated additional extension of the project until October 29, 2021. It includes strengthening partnerships across the region to address demand for evaluation capacity development (ECD) services that exceeds what any individual organization can meet, and to develop courses and programs on ECD capacity building and M&E training for relevant clients. Furthermore, knowledge generation and sharing will be ramped up. The action plan thus is designed to build on existing activities in order to achieve the project development objective. Table 1.1. shows activities to be undertaken, organized by project components. The components of the project are:  Component 1: Building a Critical Mass of M&E professionals.  Component 2: Strengthening M&E systems.  Component 3: Contributing to the availability and use of new knowledge on M&E and capacity building for M&E  Component 4: Sustainability and M&E for the project Table 1.1. Action plan to achieve the PDO. Sr No Component Activity Description Proposed Timeline (FY21) 1 Component 1 Work on certification programs on topics such as Q3 – Q4 (FY21) and performance budgeting completed by Q1 FY22 2 Component 1 Work on the development of a master’s program Q3 – Q4 (FY21) and for West African evaluators completed by Q1 FY22 3 Component 1 Coordinate with regional partners to develop a Q3 – Q4 (FY21) and roster of African evaluators completed by Q1 FY22 4 Component 1 Coordinate and implement evaluation trainings Q2 – Q4 (FY21) and on an on-demand basis completed by Q1 FY22 5 Component 1 Coordinate and implement the CLEAR FA yearly Q3 – Q4 (FY21) and training agenda completed by Q1 FY22 6 Component 2 Support to governments in up to three countries Q3 – Q4 (FY21) and to strengthen government functions related to completed by Q1 FY22 M&E through M&E diagnostic studies and subsequent targeted capacity development services 7 Component 3 Implement a joint round table event with ENAP Q3 – Q4 (FY21) and completed by Q1 FY22 8 Component 3 Participate in the 2021 gLOCAL Evaluation Week Q4 completion and other international events (AfREA, FIFE, AEA, JBE, SAMEA) 9 Component 3 Explore opportunities to create a regional space Q3 for sharing monitoring and evaluation capacities in public administrations (eg regional forum, conference, etc.) 10 Component 3 Develop knowledge products through research Q3 – Q4 (FY21) and completed by Q1 FY22 11 Component 4 Cultivate and strengthen partnerships within the Q3 – Q4 (FY21) and region and the African continent with partners completed by Q1 FY22 such as CLEAR AA, CLEAR LAB, and the École Nationale d’Administration Publique (ENAP) The World Bank CLEAR Center for Francophone Africa Phase 2 (P160703) 12 Component 4 Submit biannual Monitoring Tools Q3 and Q4 13 Component 4 Conduct ISR One month after restructuring(q3) and Q4 14 Component 4 Participate in monthly CLEAR calls and other Q3 – Q4 (FY21) and Network-wide meetings conclude by Q1 FY22 II. DESCRIPTION OF PROPOSED CHANGES (i) The project closing date will be extended from December 30, 2020 to February 26, 2021. The end disbursement date of the grant is June 30, 2021. The four-month grace period between the project closing date and the end disbursement date of the grant results in a reduced grace period for the recipient, for which the necessary clearances have been secured. This will be the first extension of the closing date for a total of two months. The project will be 3 years old at the time of closing. (ii) There is no change in the project’s development objective or components. There are also no changes in safeguard category, in the project’s implementation arrangements, and there are no overdue financial audits and no audit reports that are not acceptable to the Bank. (iii) Upon the extension of the parent trust fund, a separate restructuring will be undertaken to provide additional time for implementation (until October 29, 2021), and enable changes to the results framework. III. SUMMARY OF CHANGES Changed Not Changed Loan Closing Date(s) ✔ Disbursement Estimates ✔ Implementing Agency ✔ The World Bank CLEAR Center for Francophone Africa Phase 2 (P160703) 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 ✔ 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 TF-A5250 Effective 31-Dec-2020 26-Feb-2021 26-Apr-2021 The World Bank CLEAR Center for Francophone Africa Phase 2 (P160703) 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 207,014.34 207,014.34 2020 243,180.40 450,194.74 2021 886,805.26 1,337,000.00