PROJECT INFORMATION DOCUMENT (PID) APPRAISAL STAGE ADDITIONAL FINANCING Report No.: AB7449 Project Name Rural Community-Driven Development Project Add Fin Parent Project Name Rural Community-Driven Development Project Region AFRICA Country Guinea-Bissau Sector(s) General education sector (50%); Health (20%); Other social services (15%); Water supply (15%) Theme(s) Other social development (25%); Social Inclusion (25%); Other social protection and risk management (25%); Conflict prevention and post-conflict reconstruction (25%) Lending Instrument Investment Project Financing Project ID P146746 Parent Project ID P090712 Borrower(s) GUINEA BISSAU Implementing Agency Project Coordination Unit (PCU) Environment Category B-Partial Assessment Date PID December 6, 2013 Prepared/Updated Estimated Date of Board February 4, 2014 Approval 1. Project Context Country Context: Guinea-Bissau is a small country on the West African coast located between Senegal and Guinea-Conakry, with an estimated 1.7 million inhabitants and a GNI per capita of US$512 (2012). Endowed with good soils, high rainfall and significant mineral resources. However, governance structures are weak, agricultural and other production is underdeveloped, and poverty is widespread. Guinea-Bissau ranked 176 out of 186 countries in the 2013 UNDP Human Development Index, with three quarters living in poverty and 45 percent in extreme poverty.1 Incidence is uneven across age groups, by gender, and across regions. Guinea-Bissau is not likely to reach any of the MDGs by 2015, and is likely to fall dramatically short without a substantial infusion of donor support to prevent further deterioration of the current situation. Education sector: The delivery of basic education ranked among Guinea-Bissau’s relative success at the outset of the 21st century. Primary Net Enrollment Rate increased from 45 percent in 2000 to 67 percent in 2010, while the gender gap at the primary level narrowed. Despite these successes, many children who complete primary education have remained functionally illiterate. A lack of learning materials, teacher strikes, poor quality teaching, and limited accessibility to schools – impacted by the rainy season – have all contributed to poor learning attainments. The crisis following the April 2012 military coup has had a devastating impact on the sector. Teachers, mainly non contractual teachers but also civil servants have not been paid due a lack of 1 World Bank estimates. Fall 2013. fiscal resources, and wage arrears have accumulated. Strikes by unpaid public school teachers compromised the 2012-13 academic year. Teachers went on strike at the beginning of the 2013- 14 academic year but returned to work in mid- November 2013 after the Government cleared some wage arrears. The current transition government understands the importance of education not only for human development and well-prepared workforce, but also for the creation of a peaceful environment during the upcoming political cycle. The structuring of teachers into three categories (civil servants, new entrants, and contractual) facilitates a fast expansion with the return of robust economic circumstances and provides the space to make further pedagogical gains. In addition, school feeding and hygienic programs help to reinforce whole-family wellness and retain children in school. Health sector: Even before the 2012 coup, Guinea-Bissau’s health sector faced important challenges. Disease burden is excessively high due to communicable diseases including malaria, tuberculosis, respiratory infections, diarrhea, and HIV/AIDS, despite some progress in containing cyclic outbreaks of cholera and improving malaria prevention. Lack of financing, an acute shortage of health personnel and their uneven deployment among the regions, poor quality of care, insufficient and chronic underfunding, underdeveloped pharmaceutical policy and supply chain, and limited institutional capacity have all contributed to the poor health status of the population. The lack of funding brought about by the current crisis has further exacerbated the health sector, particularly in rural areas where the poor live. Outbreaks of cholera and acute diarrhea have reappeared and affected hundreds of people in several regions of Guinea-Bissau causing dozens of deaths. 2. Project Development Objective The Project Development Objective would remain unchanged: to increase access to priority basic social and economic infrastructures and services in participating communities in at least two regions of Guinea-Bissau. 3. Description The proposed additional grant would help finance the costs associated with scaling up the activities that are currently being successfully implemented under the Rural Community-Driven Development Project to further improve the Project’s impact and development effectiveness. The proposed additional grant would also provide critical bridge financing to cover the salaries of teachers and health workers until the upcoming elections (currently scheduled to take place in March 2014) when both donors’ assistance and fiscal resources are expected to increase. More specifically, the additional grant would finance the following components: Component 1: Capacity-Building for Community Development (US$0.05 million). This component builds the capacity of communities to prepare their development plans. Component 2: Community-Based Micro-Project (US$4.95 million). This component finances community-based micro projects which are prioritized in the community-development plans. Component 3: Project Coordination and Monitoring and Evaluation (US$1.0 million). This component finances project management and coordination costs, including consultant services, technical advisory services such as technical studies and assessments, training and operating costs. Component 4: Delivery of Education and Health Services (new activity) (US$9.0 million). This new component would finance the salary of teachers and health workers. 4. Financing Source: (US$million) BORROWER/RECIPIENT 0 IDA Grant 15 Total 15 5. Implementation The Project would use the existing and well-established institutional arrangements already in place for the implementation of the Rural Community-Driven Development Project. The Project Coordination Unit (PCU), the implementing agency of the Project, was established in 2009 within the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Regional Integration. Since its creation, it has continuously worked with communities to construct and rehabilitate basic infrastructure. Under the proposed Additional Financing it would pay teachers’ and health workers’ salaries. In preparation for this Additional Financing, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Public Administration together with the Ministries of Education and Health would validate lists of teachers and health workers with name, identification number, bank account and phone number (when available) which would be provided to IDA in preparation of the Project. The PCU would pay teachers’ and health workers’ salaries through direct transfers to individual accounts using the banking system. 6. Safeguard Policies The environmental classification of the Project would remain Category B. The community-based micro-projects financed under component 2 of the Additional Financing would be identical to those of the original Project. They would mostly consist of classrooms, community water points, and rehabilitation of rural feeder roads. They could potentially trigger Environmental Assessment (OP/BP 4.01) and Involuntary Resettlement (OP/BP 4.12). The preparation of community-development plans (Component 1) and the payment of the recurrent costs of teacher and health workers’ salaries (Component 4) would not trigger any safeguards. Under the Rural Community-Driven Development Project, the PCU prepared an Environment and Social Management Framework (ESMF) and a Resettlement Policy Framework (RPF). Micro-projects would continue to be screened to ensure compliance with safeguard policies. Mitigating measures would continue to be implemented during micro-project implementation. The project’s implementation of environmental and social safeguards policies have consistently been rated as Satisfactory. In preparation for this Additional Financing, the ESMF and RPF would be re-disclosed in country and to the Infoshop. 7. Contact point World Bank Contact: Philippe Auffret Title: Sr Social Protection Specialist Tel: (202) 473-7174 Email: pauffret@worldbank.org Borrower/Client/Recipient Contact: João S. Handem Jr. (Jamel) Title: Project Coordinator Tel: 245 3207407 Email: handem_jr@hotmail.com 8. 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 Email: pic@worldbank.org Web: http://www.worldbank.org/infoshop