The World Bank Entrepreneurship-focused socioemotional skills for the most vulnerable youth in rural Mongolia Integrated Safeguards Data Sheet Identification / Concept Stage (ISDS) Public Disclosure Copy Concept Stage | Date ISDS Prepared/Updated: 06-Jul-2018 | Report No: ISDSC23120 Jul 06, 2018 Page 1 of 15 The World Bank Entrepreneurship-focused socioemotional skills for the most vulnerable youth in rural Mongolia BASIC INFORMATION A. Basic Project Data Project ID Project Name Environmental Category Country Entrepreneurship-focused socioemotional skills for B - Partial Assessment P165310 Mongolia the most vulnerable youth (B) in rural Mongolia Team Leader(s) Estimated Date of Approval Managing Unit Financing Instrument Investment Project Rabia Ali GED02 Financing Public Disclosure Copy PROJECT FINANCING DATA (US$, Millions) SUMMARY -NewFin1 Total Project Cost 2.75 Total Financing 2.75 Financing Gap 0.00 DETAILS -NewFinEnh1 Non-World Bank Group Financing Trust Funds 2.75 Japan Social Development Fund 2.75 B. Project Development Objective(s) 25. The project development objective (PDO) is to empower 6,000 vulnerable, disadvantaged youth in 25 of Mongolia’s poorest rural districts across five provinces with socioemotional skills for improved performance in school and preparation for entry into the labor market. The PDO will be achieved through a school-based, community-driven youth program for supporting acquisition of socioemotional skills that are linked not just to success in school, but are also highly valued in the labor market. Older youths will receive training targeted more specifically to enhancing entrepreneurial knowledge and skills. The project will address the largely unmet need for socioemotional and entrepreneurship skills stemming from extremely limited labor market opportunities that lead to high inactivity among youth in these locations and a job profile dominated by traditional herding, unpaid work and self-employment in the informal sector. C. Project Description Jul 06, 2018 Page 2 of 15 The World Bank Entrepreneurship-focused socioemotional skills for the most vulnerable youth in rural Mongolia 28. The project will consist of three components. Component 1 will support development and introduction of a community-driven, locally-tailored, innovative socioemotional skills program for vulnerable rural youth. Older youths will receive training targeted more specifically to enhancing entrepreneurial skills and knowledge. Component 2 will establish mechanisms for the target youth to practically apply entrepreneurship knowledge to meet the local market needs and business opportunities. Component 3 will enhance the policy environment in support of entrepreneurship education through evidence-based advocacy and public outreach campaigns, and provide support for participatory M&E and project management. Component 1: Development and implementation of an innovative community-driven program on entrepreneurship-focused socioemotional skills for vulnerable rural youth (estimated cost: US$993,025) 29. This component will undertake the following activities: (i) develop a hands-on, innovative entrepreneurship-focused socioemotional learning (ESEL) curriculum and associated package of learning Public Disclosure Copy materials for use by youth and teachers in schools and LLCs in target soums; (ii) develop materials to train teachers in target schools and LLCs on implementing the ESEL course, including counseling and mentoring of students, and deliver the teacher training; (iii) design and implement community awareness information campaigns in each year of the project; (iv) design and implement sensitization trainings for parents; (v) establish a multi-stakeholder networking platform consisting of local councils at the aimag and soum levels to undertake bottom-up design of all project deliverables, ensure alignment with local economic conditions, and support implementation of project activities, including design of localized solutions to challenges faced. 30. Link with PDO: These activities, targeted to the most disadvantaged and vulnerable adolescents in Mongolia’s poorest soums, seek to empower beneficiaries economically by imparting to them a set of socioemotional skills linked with success both in school and, in the longer run, the labor market. For the subset of older beneficiaries of upper-secondary-school age, as well as adolescents who have dropped out of school, additional entrepreneurship-focused training will help prepare for transition to a labor market dominated by informal work and self-employment. Beneficiaries are expected to increase their self-efficacy, need for achievement, and risk-taking propensity, and become more persistent, pro-active and creative. In settings across the world, such skills and personality traits have proven to be associated both with improved academic performance and superior labor market outcomes, particularly in relation to entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions. In addition, the training delivered to teachers will improve teachers’ knowledge and understanding of the significance of social emotional learning among children and adolescents, and build their competencies in mentoring and shaping mindsets to exercise creativity, innovation and measured risk- taking, and develop other soft skills needed to thrive academically and later in life. Subcomponent 1.1 Development and piloting of an innovative, locally-tailored entrepreneurship-focused socioemotional learning (ESEL) curriculum and training package (estimated cost: US$920,525) 31. The main activity of this sub-component will be development of a one-year course curriculum and training materials for 8-12th grade students, to be delivered by teachers in schools and LLCs. Four experts (two experts with extensive experience and knowledge of the education system, one of entrepreneurship, Jul 06, 2018 Page 3 of 15 The World Bank Entrepreneurship-focused socioemotional skills for the most vulnerable youth in rural Mongolia and one of socioemotional skills) will develop a training package for both teachers and students. The course content will be customized to the somewhat different needs of the lower- and upper-secondary-school age youth. All participants will receive training on socioemotional skills (self-efficacy, perseverance, taking initiative, risk taking, creativity, problem solving). But for older youth of upper-secondary-school age (16-19 years), as well as those who have already dropped out of school, additional course content will focus more concretely on the school-to-work transition, through modules on technical knowledge for entrepreneurship (e.g. basics of entrepreneurship, value creation, economic and financial literacy, etc.) and entrepreneurship- specific skills (e.g. creation of business and financial plans, leadership, etc.). These technical knowledge and skills training modules will draw on the abstract business concepts covered under MECSS’s existing business course curriculum, and will customize it for practical application using real-world business scenarios relevant for the rural settings in which the youth are resident. This will be done under MECSS’s supervision. The venue and mode of training delivery will be designed to accommodate the specific constraints faced by vulnerable youth in the target group. For example, for youth that have already dropped out of school, the training Public Disclosure Copy would be delivered in LLCs. The course materials will be made available in languages other than Mongolian in the event of presence of ethnic minorities in the project’s target soums. 32. The training package will consist of a teacher training manual (teachers’ guide) that will cover pedagogy methods for the targeted soum-level LLC and secondary school teachers, as well as a students’ workbook. The teacher training will aim to develop teacher competencies related to creativity and entrepreneurship to help inspire students, and to nurture entrepreneurial attitudes among them. A range of teaching, facilitation, and learning methodologies (including presentations, individual assignments, group meetings with guest speakers, case studies, real-life business simulations, group exercises, and internet-based learning) will be introduced. Training of trainers will be organized at target aimag centers during school holidays, once teacher training materials have been developed by the experts. The curriculum will be delivered annually over the course of 35 weeks of the academic year. Training on entrepreneurship will also be provided for the parents of youth enrolled in the ESEL course. 33. The ESEL course curriculum and the main components of the training package will be pre-tested in one soum within 5 months after project initiation; based on the pre-test results, the content of the package will be revised and finalized. For 8th -12th grade students enrolled in secondary schools in target soums, the course will be offered as part of elective courses offered during the school year. For out-of-school youth, including those attending catch-up “equivalency” programs, the course will be offered at the LLCs attached to schools in target soums. The project will carry out community awareness and information programs prior to rollout of the pilot, and prior to each subsequent school year of the project. 34. ESEL course participants will be provided with access to a designated counsellor at each target school and LLC, available throughout the duration of the course and through its completion. The counsellors will be trained to identify and develop strategies to work with youth most vulnerable to dropping out of school, e.g. those from herders’ families. The mentoring will aim to prepare, coach, and encourage youth to complete the ESEL course. The counselling will seek to identify and alleviate personal issues and dysfunctional attitudes, as well as values and behaviors that could be a barrier to success both academically at the secondary school and higher education levels and later on when entering the labor market through self- Jul 06, 2018 Page 4 of 15 The World Bank Entrepreneurship-focused socioemotional skills for the most vulnerable youth in rural Mongolia employment or otherwise. Counsellors would support participants’ decision-making on schooling and life transitions, liaising with parents when necessary. Referrals will be provided for further training opportunities, including TVET and higher education, scholarship services for further education, and health and employment services. 35. A total of 125 participants (i.e., three teachers and two counsellors from each of the 25 soums) will be trained during the first year of the project implementation. These teachers and counsellors of secondary schools and LLCs will be provided with monetary incentives, based on the rate set under teachers’ hourly remuneration system. After the pre-testing and finalization of the ESEL course curriculum and the main components of the training package, training of both teachers and counsellors will be organized at target aimag centers. The UB-based project management team and consultants will travel to target aimags and soums for training sessions and other project-related activities. Four field facilitators/trainers will provide support for project implementation in close coordination with the UB-based project team, and aimag- and Public Disclosure Copy soum-based stakeholders. The project’s aimags and soums are some of the remotest locations in Mongolia: In general, distance between soums ranges between 50 and 300 kilometers, while distance between aimags ranges between 400 and 1500 kilometers. Subcomponent 1.2 Establishment of a multi-stakeholder coordination and networking platform to support implementation of the training program (estimated cost: US$72, 500) 36. Upon commencement of the project, local councils at the aimag level and at the soum level will be established. The aimag-level council (ALC) will be comprised of technical experts including business associations, private sector stakeholders, government officials including investment, local development policy and planning department, education and labor departments, Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MNCCI) and relevant NGOs. The ALC’s role is to provide inputs for development of the ESEL curriculum and training package under subcomponent 1.1 as well as technical guidance to the soum-based local councils (SLCs). ALCs will also be responsible for creation of panels of judges to organize the soum-level competition for the award of grants under component 2. SLCs created under this subcomponent will work under the direction of their respective ALCs and will consist of representatives from among parents of the targeted youth, teachers and other school administrators, private sector stakeholders, and soum government. SLC will support all project activities within soums. The SLCs and ALCs together constitute a multi-stakeholder networking platform that will come together in quarterly meetings to review project implementation and outputs produced, suggest improvements needed to fine-tune alignment of project activities with local economic and school conditions, and brainstorm solutions to problems reported by project school teachers and other school administrators. The project will provide support for the ALCs and SLCs to build their capacity to conduct project monitoring activities. Special attention will be paid to ensure that representatives of ethnic minority communities are represented on ALCs and SLCs, in soums where these communities are resident. Component 2: Introduction of a small grant mechanism to enable target youth to practically apply entrepreneurship knowledge (estimated cost: US$809,900) Jul 06, 2018 Page 5 of 15 The World Bank Entrepreneurship-focused socioemotional skills for the most vulnerable youth in rural Mongolia 37. This component will undertake the following activities: (i) design and pilot an innovative seed capital scheme to finance competitively-selected business proposals developed by youth teams in target soums who would receive customized business training and personalized coaching and mentoring, and implement their proposals under supervision of ALCs and SLCs; (ii) sensitize stakeholders to and align all project activities with the Children's Rights and Business Principles (CRBP); (iii) disseminate the most successful business ideas implemented under the seed capital scheme, including through experience sharing events for target youth and community-based information campaigns; and (iv) conduct a comprehensive economic assessment and market analysis to explore potential for creation of school-based enterprises (SBEs) in the project’s target soums. 38. Link with PDO: The seed capital (or small grant) scheme will provide a mechanism to enable older youth in the project’s target group to practically apply entrepreneurship knowledge and social emotional learning acquired under component 1 to identify and harness unexploited business opportunities at the local level. Public Disclosure Copy Thus, component-2 activities associated with the small grant scheme will deepen the development impact of the ESEL training under component 1, further strengthening potential for self-employment and economic empowerment among target youth through enhancement of entrepreneurial attitudes, intentions and behaviors, leading to enhanced capacity of doing business. 39. To ensure that grants are used for exploiting untapped business opportunities available at the soum level and proceeds directed towards activities with potential for economic productivity that allow practical application of skills acquired under the ESEL course, the business idea selection criteria will be carefully prepared in consultation with soum labor and economic development authorities. Aimag and soum governments regularly publish economic development plans and priorities which identify sectors with greatest potential for growth. Selected proposals will demonstrate adequate alignment with these soum- level priorities. Ensuring this alignment will also allow for mobilization of supplementary resources available at the soum level through the local government and through schools, and enhance potential for sustainable implementation of successful business ideas. Close attention will be paid to the relevance of the business proposal, its feasibility, and its approach to measured risk-taking and managing risks, given the economic conditions of each soum. Together, these measures are intended to ensure that the grants are not considered to be handouts or social transfers; rather, these are investments intended to nurture entrepreneurial skills and mindsets through giving target youth a chance to creatively explore, assess and harness business opportunities that they could have never explored or tapped in the absence of such grants. 40. Under a designated supervisor, ESEL course participants will work in teams to develop business plans for submission in a soum-level competition, organized under the project, for a chance to win seed capital to fund business ideas proposed. Team members will need to be at least of upper-secondary-school age (16-19 years). At the end of the ESEL course, each team would submit a proposal describing a business idea feasible for implementation at the soum level, a basic marketing and primary customer assessment, and an estimated budget. The business proposal template would be introduced to target youth as part of the ESEL course. Up to 6 teams will be selected from each of the 25 soums to receive small project-financed grants of up to US$1,000 per team each year to implement their business ideas over the course of one to two years, under guidance of the team supervisor. Local trainers in each aimag will also receive coaching from UB-based Jul 06, 2018 Page 6 of 15 The World Bank Entrepreneurship-focused socioemotional skills for the most vulnerable youth in rural Mongolia business consultants to build capacity to provide mentoring to successful teams. All teams preparing proposals will receive business training and personalized coaching organized through school extracurricular activities such as entrepreneurship clubs. Local stakeholders including private sector representatives will also be invited to provide coaching and mentoring to support teams in development of their business plans. Activities will be aligned with Children's Rights and Business Principles (CRBP)[9], which will be disseminated during project workshops, meetings and campaigns to all stakeholders, including the youth teams. 41. Teams whose business ideas are selected for implementation will be partnered with relevant stakeholders including the local government office and members of the Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MNCCI), to improve quality of implementation. Where relevant, ALCs will work with MNCCI and other stakeholders to develop relationships between the youth teams and potential markets external to the team’s soum or aimag, and facilitate market linkages. Experience sharing events among participating teams will be organized to observe the best business ideas in other soums. This hands-on Public Disclosure Copy approach will strengthen youths’ enthusiasm for the course by engaging them in a creative exercise that is relevant to the economic life of their community. It will also give participating youth an opportunity to gain the experience of working in teams and practically apply communication and other skills developed throughout the course. 42. A grant manual will be developed and disseminated in order to clarify requirements for key elements expected in youth’s business proposals, criteria and procedures for short-listing and selection of proposals, youth team composition, beneficiary eligibility and selection criteria, the governance structure for grant award and implementation, the grants’ expected outcomes, grant agreement signing and termination procedure, and reporting and monitoring, among others. The manual will be made available in languages other than Mongolian in the event of presence of ethnic minorities in the project’s target soums e.g. Khovd soum of Khovd aimag. The following paragraphs of the PIN outline the key elements of the governance structure and criteria for awarding grants, and these elements will be fleshed out in the grant manual. 43. Selection of proposals and grant awards: ALCs, set up under component 1 of the project, will establish an independent panel of judges for each soum to organize soum-level competitions for the award of grants, and to review and evaluate the proposals received, jointly with the SCJ project management team. The panel of judges will consist of three individuals: two MNCCI or TVET representatives at the aimag center level, and one representative of the business community in the respective soum. Organization of grant competitions at the soum level is expected to attract more participants to the ESEL course. The selection criteria for proposals include, among others, potential to improve the quality and productivity of economic activity within the community and alignment with soum-level development priorities where beneficial, potential for sustainability, strong environmental awareness, innovativeness, and potential for profitability. The judges will score proposals that meet all the requirements and eligibility based on each selection criteria for short- listing. Applicants whose proposals are short-listed will present their business ideas to the judges at the grant competitions. Based on the teams’ presentation of proposals, the judges will select and award teams in accordance with the grant manual’s guidelines and selection criteria, also jointly with SCJ. The judges will receive a small daily remuneration to cover their per diem, accommodation, and transportation costs. Eligibility criteria for the grants would include age restrictions, with all team members required to be Jul 06, 2018 Page 7 of 15 The World Bank Entrepreneurship-focused socioemotional skills for the most vulnerable youth in rural Mongolia between 16-19 years old at time of grant application and resident in the project’s target soum. The grant manual would also include a template for youth team business proposals. 44. Implementation and monitoring of grant activities and expenditures: A trilateral agreement will be signed between SCJ, the selected school director (on behalf of the youth team), and the chairperson of the SLC. This agreement will be a legally-binding document that clarifies the role and responsibilities of each signatory in proposal implementation, monitoring and reporting on use grant of proceeds, and financial management. The chairperson’s written declaration of such purpose and his/her responsibility of using the account for the agreed purposes will be attached to the grant agreement. Overall, the roles and responsibilities will be shared between the three parties in the following manner: (i) The SLC and the youth team supervisor will monitor the day-to-day activities funded by the grant and carried out by the youth team, including adherence to sound financial management practices including audits to ensure that grants are not subjected to misuse and that expenditures exclude items from a negative list prepared in consultation with soum Public Disclosure Copy government and labor authorities; (ii) SLCs will work with ALCs to facilitate youth teams’ engagement with MNCCI and other private sector stakeholders; (iii) SCJ, together with each ALC, will monitor implementation of grant-financed business ideas through joint supervision missions. A template for tripartite agreements will be included in the grant manual. The SLC will meet with youth teams at least once a month during the first four months of implementation to brainstorm solutions to problems faced; thereafter the meeting frequency will be reduced to once a quarter to receive an update from the team on implementation of activities, expenditures and profits to date. Non- or low-performing business ideas will be identified within the first quarter of implementation, reported to the respective ALC and SCJ, and will receive increased scrutiny and handholding from the SLC, ALC, and counsellors. The SLC will update ALCs and SCJ on grant activities and expenditures through quarterly reports mandated under component 3 of the project. The grant proceeds will be transferred to the SLC’s account in three installments, constituting 40, 50, and 10 percent of the total value of the grant, respectively. The transfer of the second and third installments will require joint approval by SCJ and the respective ALC. Criteria for approval of transfers will also be stated in the tripartite agreement. 45. Grant completion/closing formalities: A grant completion report describing achievement of business objectives and lessons learnt would be prepared by the youth teams upon completion of activities. As part of the counseling offered under the project, SLCs, in conjunction with ALCs and SCJ, would provide feedback to youth teams whose business ideas were not selected and advice offered on how the proposals could be improved for submission in the next round, and the teams would be encouraged to apply again in the subsequent year. All interested youth would be provided referrals to existing micro-finance or credit providers. Upon completion of grant implementation among youth teams whose ideas were selected, counseling sessions will provide an opportunity for teams to reflect on the work and learning achieved, the challenges faced, successful and unsuccessful strategies employed while implementing the grant, and practical life lessons learnt or skills acquired during the experience. 46. A large share of grant proceeds are expected to go towards initial investments in small equipment, tools, and materials, and operating costs at start-up, and youth team business ideas are expected to be concentrated in (i) services and sales (e.g. tourism and hospitality – tour operation, customer welcoming, Jul 06, 2018 Page 8 of 15 The World Bank Entrepreneurship-focused socioemotional skills for the most vulnerable youth in rural Mongolia sightseeing, theory of B&B; electrical product repair; tailoring; carpentry; vehicle repair/maintenance; Internet cafés/IT services; produce vendors); (ii) small-scale, labor intensive production of goods (handmade products from locally-sourced raw and other materials including those derived from livestock; leather crafts, woolen products, dairy products, arts and crafts, clothing and textiles, toys and learning materials for young children, shoes, etc.); and (iii) food production, agriculture and animal husbandry (e.g. running semi-settled or intensive farming, animal health and breeding, farming management, animal feed e.g. making fodder, greenhouse and food processing, vegetable planting, growing, cooking, pickling etc.). 47. A comprehensive economic assessment and market analysis will be conducted in each aimag by UB- based experts, jointly with ALCs and SLCs, examining potential for leveraging untapped resources available in schools to set up school-based enterprises (SBEs), and the role SBEs may play in advancing economic opportunities among vulnerable youth in target soums. An SBE is an entrepreneurial operation in a school setting that provides goods/services to meet the needs of the market. SBEs are managed and operated by Public Disclosure Copy students as hands-on learning laboratories that integrate national curriculum standards in marketing, finance, hospitality or management. SBEs are effective educational tools in helping to prepare students for the transition from school to work or college. For many students, they provide the first work experience; for others, they provide an opportunity to build management, supervision and leadership skills. Therefore, SBEs will allow the project’s targeted youth to apply their ESEL training and further strengthen their capacity to put their business ideas into practice by increasing their exposure to business operations. SBEs, if implemented successfully, could also serve as an innovative model for enhancing school-community relationships and spurring growth of local businesses. In Mongolia, a draft amendment to the Law on Primary and Secondary Education was recently submitted to the Parliament aiming to give school directors the authority to rent out school canteen/food processing facilities for commercial purposes. Such a regulation has the potential to provide a legal basis for establishment of SBEs; the proposed assessment would thus explore opportunities for creation of such enterprises in target soums. If the assessment’s results (to be made available in the second year of the project) are promising, the project will work with business consultants to develop operational guidelines and provide coaching services to selected schools to pilot establishment of one SBE during the third and fourth years of the project. Component 3: Project Management and Administration, Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E), and Knowledge Dissemination (estimated cost: US$949,369) 48. This component will undertake the following activities: (i) support operations of SCJ project management team that will manage day-to-day activities and conduct M&E of project activities, including regular updating of the project’s results framework (RF) and management of a project-level Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM); (ii) design and conduct the baseline and end-line surveys as part of the project’s final evaluation; (iii) conduct an annual audit; (iv) conduct a mid-term Review (MTR) for the project; (v) produce an implementation completion results report (ICR); (vi) provide training support for participatory M&E by the project’s stakeholders; and (vii) undertake knowledge dissemination activities, including development of communication materials, public outreach campaigns, and consultations and fora at the local and national levels. Jul 06, 2018 Page 9 of 15 The World Bank Entrepreneurship-focused socioemotional skills for the most vulnerable youth in rural Mongolia 49. Link to PDO: Together, these activities will allow measurement of progress towards the PDO, and will support achievement of the PDO through participatory M&E and project management, generation and dissemination of information to hold all stakeholders involved in implementation of the project accountable for progress, including the implementing agency SCJ, and enhance the policy environment in support of entrepreneurship education through evidence-based advocacy and public outreach campaigns. Subcomponent 3.1 Project management and administration (estimated cost: US$653,641) 50. Day-to-day implementation and operational support for the project will be provided under this subcomponent. In addition to operational costs, it will finance the staffing required for the project’s implementation, which will include, among others, a Project Manager, two Project Officers and four Logistics Assistants, as well as 25 percent of staff time of a Human Resources and Administrative Manager, a Finance Manager and a Finance and Grant Management Officer providing procurement and financial management Public Disclosure Copy oversight and other support (see Annex 1: Stakeholder Mapping, which describes the roles of each stakeholder, including the members of the UB-based project team). A total of four annual audits are planned for the duration of the project, and an Implementation Completion Results Report (ICR) will be produced at project closing. A project-specific GRM will be established and project stakeholders will be sensitized to the GRM. The goal of the GRM is to ensure that project activities are implemented transparently and accountably, that voices and concerns of targeted groups and other stakeholders are heard, and that the grievances raised are resolved effectively and expeditiously at the SLC or ALC level. Subcomponent 3.2 Participatory M&E system (estimated cost: US$164,000) 51. This subcomponent will support data collection to establish baseline and end-line values for the project’s RF indicators, and the MTR and final evaluation, all of which will feed into the ICR. The baseline survey will also collect data from local stakeholders to confirm presence of non-Mongolian speaking ethnic minorities in project soums; the findings of the survey will inform the decision of whether to translate ESEL course and grant scheme materials into Kazakh and/or Tuvan languages. This subcomponent will also finance activities that will provide training support for participatory M&E by the project’s stakeholders, including ALCs and SLCs. Each SLC will have a designated M&E focal point, who will be responsible for monitoring implementation progress, which will include the number of trainings delivered, program uptake, attrition, and academic performance, and providing regular implementation updates and data to the respective ALC and the SCJ project management team. Report formats will be designed to ensure that data are available to the SLC and other stakeholders to monitor progress and fix problems in a timely manner, and that challenges faced at the soum level and lessons learnt are adequately documented. Quarterly reports will be generated for MECSS and MLSP, who will jointly review performance and provide oversight. In order to ensure availability of an objective account of the impact of the grant upon completion, the final evaluation will include reporting of outcomes in a credible comparison group of youth similar to the project’s target group, but who are not able to participate in the project’s activities. Subcomponent 3.3 Knowledge generation and dissemination (estimated cost: US$131,728) Jul 06, 2018 Page 10 of 15 The World Bank Entrepreneurship-focused socioemotional skills for the most vulnerable youth in rural Mongolia 52. To sustain community ownership of the intervention and prepare for sustainable implementation and possible replication in other parts of Mongolia, this subcomponent will develop communication materials based on the project’s progress and intermediate results to conduct consultations and public outreach campaigns on the importance of early-age entrepreneurship education and its potential contribution to local economic development and employability of rural youth. ALCs will play the lead role in organizing advocacy and campaign work at the aimag level. The campaigns will draw on in-house evaluation of the project’s effectiveness, intermediate results, and outcomes, which will be conducted jointly with SLCs, ALCs, and other community-level and national stakeholders involved in the project’s implementation, through the dissemination of project results and best practices to policymakers, government and private sector stakeholders, and the Mongolian public, at national and regional fora. Successful business ideas and their implementation will be documented and disseminated through the media. The overall objective for this subcomponent is to document and disseminate evidence on the need for curricular and pedagogical reform at the national level and development of a roadmap for integration of contextually-relevant employment and Public Disclosure Copy entrepreneurship skills with foundational academic skills currently taught in schools. 53. Note on the project's focus on gender: All activities will be gender-sensitive as they will be designed to address the different skills needs of young men and women. Project activities will aim to empower female students with entrepreneurial skills and attitudes mitigating the impact of gender-related constraints that lead to poorer labor market outcomes among rural Mongolian women when they exit school as well as low participation in self-employment. Specific activities include gender awareness modules in all student, teacher and parent trainings offered under the project, gender-sensitive counseling and mentoring, development of female-centered social and business networks and linking female students to these networks, and prioritization of financing and promotion of business proposals led by female students. The full set of gender- sensitive actions will be finalized at the appraisal stage, and will seek to build female students’ confidence and real-world experience of what it means to be an entrepreneur. Key outputs from these activities will be monitored via gender-disaggregated indicators in the Results Framework. Outcomes expected under the project include an increase in the number of female students with enhanced capacity of doing business and better market linkages, and improved engagement at school and strengthened life aspirations among female students. Footnotes: [9] Developed by the United Nations Children's Fund, the United Nations Global Compact, and Save the Children, CRBP is the first comprehensive set of principles that provide guidance for businesses and firms on how they can take the full range of actions in the workplace, marketplace, and community to respect and support children’s rights. SAFEGUARDS Jul 06, 2018 Page 11 of 15 The World Bank Entrepreneurship-focused socioemotional skills for the most vulnerable youth in rural Mongolia D. Project location and salient physical characteristics relevant to the safeguard analysis (if known) The project will target youth in 25 soums in Gobisumber aimag (Central region); Zavkhan and Khovd aimags (Western region); Uvurkhangai (Khangai region); and Sukhbaatar (Eastern region). The location of the project triggers Indigenous Peoples OP/BP 4.10 due to presence of ethnic minorities. The project will not finance civil works, and is expected to have minimal or no adverse environmental impacts. Public Disclosure Copy E. Borrower’s Institutional Capacity for Safeguard Policies While the implementing the “Improving Primary Education Outcomes Among the Most Vulnerable Children in Rural Mongolia” project (P130760) between 2012 and 2017, SCJ gained significant experience with World Bank Safeguards policies. Building on this foundation, training on overseeing the adherence to relevant safeguards policies will be offered to SCJ’s project implementation team as part of the Bank’s project implementation support. F. Environmental and Social Safeguards Specialists on the Team Erdene Ochir Badarch, Social Safeguards Specialist Xiaodan Huang, Environmental Safeguards Specialist G. Policies that might apply Safeguard Policies Triggered by the Project Triggered? Explanation (Optional) Environmental Assessment OP/BP 4.01 Yes As OP 4.10 on indigenous peoples is triggered (see below), the project is a category B project and OP 4.01 is triggered as the Bank’s umbrella safeguards policy. Overall, the project does not finance civil works under any component. Component 1 of the project will support development and implementation of an innovative community-driven education program on entrepreneurship skills for vulnerable, rural youth. There is thus no adverse environmental impact expected under this component. Under Component 2, the project will finance and oversee Jul 06, 2018 Page 12 of 15 The World Bank Entrepreneurship-focused socioemotional skills for the most vulnerable youth in rural Mongolia implementation of a competitive small grants scheme (up to $1,000 per grant) to enable older youth in the project’s target group to practically apply entrepreneurship knowledge and social emotional skills acquired under component 1 to identify and harness unexploited business opportunities at the local level. Youth team business ideas are expected to be concentrated in (i) services and sales, e.g. in tourism and hospitality; (ii) small-scale, labor-intensive production of hand-made goods; and (iii) food production, agriculture and animal husbandry. The screening Public Disclosure Copy process for grants will weed out those ideas that that pose substantial environmental risks. To reduce potential for adverse impacts for activities linked to agriculture and animal husbandry, preference will be given to ideas that convert processed raw materials into an end product. Additional risk mitigation measures include (i) sensitization of youth as part of the ESEL training to laws, regulations and good practices related to environmental management and sustainability in the context of key business areas of interest; (ii) The grant proposal template will include (a) mandatory justification that the implementation of the business idea will have no adverse impacts on the physical and social environment; (b) description of the practices to be employed to manage and minimize adverse impacts, including production of noise, congestion, refuse or litter; and (c) measures for safeguarding the well-being of workers and family members involved in the businesses. Mitigation measures approved for each business idea will be monitored by SLCs and reported quarterly in SLC reports to ALCs and SCJ. Overall, thus, no significant, irreversible, or major environmental impacts are anticipated under the project, but each grant proposal will be screened Jul 06, 2018 Page 13 of 15 The World Bank Entrepreneurship-focused socioemotional skills for the most vulnerable youth in rural Mongolia and the decision to proceed with the business idea (or to continue its implementation) will be made on a case-by- case basis and through ongoing monitoring. Natural Habitats OP/BP 4.04 No Forests OP/BP 4.36 No Pest Management OP 4.09 No Physical Cultural Resources OP/BP 4.11 No This Policy is triggered due to presence of ethnic minorities in the project's target locations. During the appraisal stage, consultations targeting IP Public Disclosure Copy communities/youth will be conducted to (i) ascertain whether training materials need to be translated into a language other than Mongolian (e.g. Kazakh or Tuvan); (ii) explore measures to enhance the project’s benefits for IP communities (e.g. an assessment of particular issues that should be considered when designing particular activities during project implementation); (iii) explore ways to ensure that the project Indigenous Peoples OP/BP 4.10 Yes includes representatives of IP communities (e.g. trough IP NGOs or NGOs that have worked closely with IP communities) in the multi-stakeholder networking platform consisting of local councils established under the project. An Environmental and Social Safeguards Framework (ESMF) will be prepared for the project. One of the ESMF chapters will include an Indigenous Peoples Planning Framework (IPPF) that captures relevant dimensions of the project to ensure that IPs benefit in culturally appropriate ways, with social safeguards measures proposed proportional to the project’s activities and potential risks. Involuntary Resettlement OP/BP 4.12 No Safety of Dams OP/BP 4.37 No Projects on International Waterways OP/BP 7.50 No Projects in Disputed Areas OP/BP 7.60 No Jul 06, 2018 Page 14 of 15 The World Bank Entrepreneurship-focused socioemotional skills for the most vulnerable youth in rural Mongolia H. Safeguard Preparation Plan Appraisal stage ISDS required? Yes SafeguardAppraisalStage a) Tentative target date for disclosing the appraisal stage ISDS 17-Sep-2018 b) Time frame for launching and completing the safeguard-related studies that may be needed. An ESMF will be prepared for the project, and will be shared with the RSS two weeks before appraisal. One of the ESMF chapters will include an IPPF that captures relevant dimensions of the project to ensure that IPs benefit in culturally appropriate ways, with social safeguards measures proposed proportional to the project’s activities and potential risks. In addition, a baseline survey will be conducted within the first month of project implementation to re-confirm official demographic data on presence of non-Mongolian speaking ethnic minorities in project soums; the findings of the survey will inform the decision of whether to translate Public Disclosure Copy the ESEL course and grant scheme materials into Kazakh and/or Tuvan languages. The baseline survey would also help establish whether any of the other social groups in Mongolia covered by OP 4.10 are present in project soums, and if so, how they can benefit from the project. These include small Mongol groups with distinct dialects and cultures such as the Durbet Mongol, Bayad, Buryat Mongol, and Dariganga Mongol; small groups of Turkic-speaking minorities in the western and northern parts of Mongolia (Uyghurs, Uzbeks, Tuvinians, Urianhais and Hotons); Tuvinian-speaking Tsaatan (also known as Dukha) reindeer herders the Sayan Mountains around Lake Hovsgol in northern Mongolia; and the Evenk who speak a Tungusic language. APPROVALS Team Leader(s): Rabia Ali Approved By Safeguards Advisor: Peter Leonard 26-Jun-2018 Practice Manager/Manager: Harry Anthony Patrinos 26-Jun-2018 1Reminder: The Bank's Disclosure Policy requires that safeguard-related documents be disclosed before appraisal (i) by the Bank and (ii) in country by the Borrower/Recipient, at publicly accessible locations and in a form and language that are accessible to potentially affected persons. Jul 06, 2018 Page 15 of 15