Document of The World Bank FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Report No: 74924-JO PROJECT APPRAISAL DOCUMENT ON A PROPOSED GRANT FROM THE MENA TRANSITION FUND IN THE AMOUNT OF US$9.5 MILLION TO THE HASHEMITE KINGDOM OF JORDAN FOR A SUPPORT TO IMPLEMENTATION OF A NATIONAL UNIFIED REGISTRY AND OUTREACH PROGRAM FOR TARGETING SOCIAL ASSISTANCE (P143193) OCTOBER 1, 2013 This document has a restricted distribution and may be used by recipients only in the performance of their official duties. Its contents may not otherwise be disclosed without World Bank authorization. CURRENCY EQUIVALENTS (Exchange Rate Effective: September 30, 2013) Currency Unit = Jordanian Dinar (JOD) JOD 0.709 = US$1 US$ 1.41 = JOD 1 FISCAL YEAR January 1 – December 31 ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS CBJ Central Bank of Jordan CBO Community Based Organization CQS Consultant Qualification based Selection GDP Gross Domestic Product GFMIS Government Financial Management Information System GOJ Government of Jordan GRS Grievance Redress System HH Household IFR Interim Financial Report IOWP Integrated Outreach Worker Program IPSAS International Public Sector Accounting Standards ISTD Income and Sales Tax Department LCS Least Cost Selection M&E Monitoring and Evaluation MENA Middle East & North Africa MOF Ministry of Finance MOPIC Ministry of Planning & International Cooperation MOSD Ministry of Social Development NAF National Aid Fund NGO Non - Governmental Organization NPRS National Poverty Reduction Strategy NUR National Unified Registry OECD Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development PDO Project Development Objective PMT Proxy Means Testing PRS Poverty Reduction Strategy QCBS Quality and Cost Based Selection SSS Single Source Selection STC Special Tendering Committee TOR Terms of Reference Regional Vice President: Inger Andersen Country Director: Ferid Belhaj Sector Director: Steen Lau Jorgensen Sector Manager: Yasser El-Gammal Task Team Leader: Haneen Sayed HASHEMITE KINGDOM OF JORDAN Support to Implementation of a National Unified registry and Outreach Program for Targeting Social Assistance (P144832) TABLE OF CONTENTS Page I. STRATEGIC CONTEXT .................................................................................................8 A. Country Context ............................................................................................................ 8 B. Sectoral and Institutional Context ................................................................................. 8 C. Higher Level Objectives to which the Project Contributes ........................................ 11 II. PROJECT DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVES ..............................................................13 A. PDO............................................................................................................................. 13 B. Project Beneficiaries ................................................................................................... 13 C. PDO Level Results Indicators ..................................................................................... 13 III. PROJECT DESCRIPTION ..............14 A. Project Components .................................................................................................... 14 B. Project Financing ........................................................................................................ 17 Lending Instrument ........................................................................................................... 17 Project Cost and Financing ............................................................................................... 17 C. Lessons Learned and Reflected in the Project Design ................................................ 18 IV. IMPLEMENTATION .....................................................................................................19 A. Institutional and Implementation Arrangements ........................................................ 19 B. Results Monitoring and Evaluation ............................................................................ 20 C. Sustainability............................................................................................................... 21 V. KEY RISKS AND MITIGATION MEASURES ..........................................................21 A. Risk Ratings Summary ............................................................................................... 21 B. Description .................................................................................................................. 21 VI. APPRAISAL SUMMARY ..............................................................................................22 A. Economic and Financial Analyses .............................................................................. 22 B. Technical ..................................................................................................................... 24 C. Financial Management ................................................................................................ 25 D. Procurement ................................................................................................................ 25 E. Social (including Safeguards) ..................................................................................... 27 F. Environment (including Safeguards) .......................................................................... 27 G. Other Safeguards Policies Triggered (if required)...................................................... 27 Annex 1: Results Framework and Monitoring .........................................................................28 Annex 2: Detailed Project Description .......................................................................................31 Annex 3: Implementation Arrangements ..................................................................................37 Annex 4: Operational Risk Assessment Framework (ORAF) .................................................47 Annex 5: Implementation Support Plan ....................................................................................49 PAD DATA SHEET Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Support to Implementation of a National Unified Registry and Outreach Program for Targeting Social Assistance PROJECT APPRAISAL DOCUMENT Middle East and North Africa Human Development Department Basic Information Date: October 1, 2013 Sectors: Social Protection (50%); Public Finance (50%) Country Director: Ferid Belhaj Themes: Human Development and Social Protection, Public Sector Governance, Economic Dev Sector Manager/Director: Yasser El-Gammal/Steen EA Category: C Jorgensen Project ID: P144832 Lending Instrument: IPF Team Leader(s): Haneen Sayed Does the project include any CDD component? No Joint IFC: No Recipient: Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Responsible Agency: Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation Contact: H.E. Mr. Ibrahim Saif Title: Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Telephone No.: +962 6 4645437 Email: Ibrahim.Saif@mop.gov.jo Project Implementation Period: Start Date: October 15, 2013 End Date: June 30th, 2017 Expected Effectiveness Date: October 15, 2013 Expected Closing Date: December 30, 2017 Project Financing Data(US$M) [ ] Loan [ x] Grant [ ] Other [ ] Credit [ ] Guarantee For Loans/Credits/Others Total Project Cost : US$10 Million Total Bank Financing : US$9.5 million Total Co-financing : US$0.5 million (GoJ) Financing Gap : Financing Source Amount(US$M) RECIPIENT US$0.5 Million IBRD IDA: Others (MENA Transition Fund) US$9.5 Million Financing Gap Total US$ 10.0 Million IBRD Expected Disbursements (in USD Million) Disbursement tables pertaining to TF financing only Fiscal Year 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Annual 0.5 3 3 2.5 0.5 Cumulative 0.5 3.5 6.5 9 9.5 Project Development Objective(s) The project development objective is to improve the targeting of social safety net programs and develop an efficient outreach mechanism . Components: Component Name Cost (USD Millions) Includes Government contribution Component 1: Building and Using National Unified Registry for Targeting Safety Nets 2.5 Component 2: Piloting Integrated Outreach Worker Program 7.5 Compliance Policy Does the project depart from the CAS in content or in other significant respects? Yes [ ] No [ x ] Does the project require any exceptions from Bank policies? Yes [ ] No [ x ] Have these been approved by Bank management? N/A Yes [ ] No [ ] Is approval for any policy exception sought from the Board? Yes [ ] No [ x ] Does the project meet the Regional criteria for readiness for implementation? Yes [ x ] No [ ] Safeguard Policies Triggered by the Project Yes No Environmental Assessment OP/BP 4.01 x Natural Habitats OP/BP 4.04 x Forests OP/BP 4.36 x Pest Management OP 4.09 x Physical Cultural Resources OP/BP 4.11 x Indigenous Peoples OP/BP 4.10 x Involuntary Resettlement OP/BP 4.12 x Safety of Dams OP/BP 4.37 x Projects on International Waterways OP/BP 7.50 x Projects in Disputed Areas OP/BP 7.60 x Team Composition Bank Staff Name Title Specialization Unit UPI Haneen Sayed Lead Operations Officer TTL MNSSP Iqbal Kaur Sr. Social Protection Specialist Social Protection MNSSP Jad Mazahreh Sr. Financial Management Financial Management MNAFM Specialist Lina Fares Sr. Procurement Specialist Procurement MNAPR Hassine Hedda Finance Officer Loan Operations CTRLA Maya Abi Karam Counsel Country Lawyer LEGAM Hala Ballout Program Assistant MNSHD Non Bank Staff Name Title Office Phone City Tarsicio Castaneda Safety Net Consultant Ghada Shaqour Procurement Consultant Locations Country First Administrative Location Planned Actual Comments Division I. STRATEGIC CONTEXT A. Country Context 1. The economy of Jordan was knocked off-course by the global crisis and a series of regional events and has since been struggling to regain its footing. Following almost a decade of strong macroeconomic performance, the political upheaval that swept the Arab region has had a significant impact on Jordan, taking the form of economic shocks (dramatic decrease in foreign direct investment, remittances and tourist revenues since 2011) combined with interruptions in the gas supply from Egypt, and coinciding with higher international grain and energy prices. Energy imports increased from 9 percent of GDP in 2003 to 19 percent of GDP in 2011. In addition, the fallout from the Syrian conflict next door – in terms of both inflow of refugees and trade disruptions – is causing new concerns. As a result, the fiscal consolidation path launched in 2010 has been diverted and has resulted in a high primary fiscal deficit (9.6 percent of GDP in 2011) and increased public debt-to-GDP ratio (surpassing 60 percent debt ceiling in the autumn of 2011). 2. The weakening economy is further undermined by social challenges, including unemployment and poverty. Unemployment averaged 13 percent in the last decade (with youth unemployment over 30 percent), and absolute poverty according to Jordan’s 2012 Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS)1 is estimated at about 14.4 percent. The PRS, launched end January 2013, highlights that though considerable progress in poverty reduction has been achieved in the past decade, significant challenges remain. In addition, the Government is concerned that progress is threatened by the adverse changes in the world economy that have affected Jordan, causing an increase in the fiscal deficit that has restricted fiscal space for implementing employment generation and social protection programs. 3. At this time of growing social unrest, the Government’s key challenge, therefore, is to adopt a mix of fiscal consolidation measures which include subsidy reform as an integral part, and to reinstate social protection policies to protect the poor and vulnerable. On the one hand, embarking on fiscal consolidation and subsidy reform will save money for the Government. On the other hand, this could have an adverse effect on the population and could contribute to an increase in poverty in the short run. Thus, moving forward, putting in place compensation measures would not only mitigate any negative impact of economic/subsidy reform but could also help in winning broad public support for reform implementation. B. Sectoral and Institutional Context 4. The Government is committed to reducing its dependence on energy imports and phasing out subsidies to make Jordan less vulnerable to exogenous shocks. On November 13, 2012, the Government took the decision to revert to the automatic pricing of petroleum products. As a consequence, the prices of the following items increased as follows: (i) gasoline octane 90 by 14.3 percent (from 700 to 800 JD fils); (ii) diesel (known as Solar) by 33 percent (from 515 to 685 JD fils); (iii) kerosene by 33 percent (from 515 to 685 JD fils); (iv) LPG (Gas 1 JORDAN Poverty Reduction Strategy (December 2012 draft). Poverty numbers based on 2010 Household and Expenditure Survey. 8 Cylinders of 12.5 KG used mainly for cooking) by 53.8 percent (from JD6.5 to JD12). The prices of other petroleum products, including Gasoline 95, were already liberalized starting in the second quarter of 2012. 5. At the same time, the Government is also committed to protecting its poor and vulnerable by compensating these groups for the rise in fuel prices, but lacks an adequate system to distribute the compensation cost effectively. A large number of public and private providers are involved in safety net program delivery, with the National Aid Fund (NAF) being the key public cash transfer program. The NAF, though relatively well targeted to the poor (two- thirds of NAF resources go to the bottom 20 percent of the population), has very limited coverage of the poor and vulnerable population, with only 31 percent of the bottom decile receiving NAF assistance (2010). Overall, about 7.45 percent of the Jordanian population received NAF assistance in 2010.2 Other existing social safety net programs in Jordan are fragmented, use different and ill-suited targeting methods, have low coverage, and cannot effectively act as stabilizers in time of need. They do not have the needed capacity, outreach and infrastructure to deliver transfers and/or services to target groups in an accurate way, and on a large scale when needed. 6. Realizing the urgency of the matter, and in order to curb the growing public outcry at the rising fuel prices, the Government in December 2012 announced a “broadly-targeted cash transfer compensation” program to accompany the fuel subsidy removal, administered by the Income and Sales Tax Department (ISTD).3 All households with an aggregate annual income below JD10,000 excluding foreigners and Jordanians living abroad, are eligible for the program. Given the relatively low income inequality in Jordan (Gini coefficient of about 0.37), this implied that the Government will cover up to 70 percent of the Jordanian population. The compensation consists of a cash transfer of JD70 per person per annum, up to a limit of 6 people per family, in 2013 (see Box 1 for further details). 7. While the fiscal savings from the new cash transfer program appear considerable (JD350-400 million is the cost of the compensation program versus a JD800 million cost of the fuel subsidy), the poverty impact is yet to be seen. The broadly-targeted compensation (up to the 7th income decile) relied on self-reported income declarations. While the current strategy was probably the only one possible given the tight schedule of the reform program, a better and more precise targeting system needs to be designed and implemented for future rounds of compensation subsidies or for safety nets. The reliance on self-reported income declarations is known to contain large inaccuracies, particularly in an economy with high informality where people will under-report their incomes, knowing there are few ways that authorities can verify true income. Thus, the true poverty impact of the program is yet to be seen. 8. A new targeting system must address the fragmentation of databases across various agencies that exist today and establish a “National Unified Registry” where all applicants can be ranked according to one welfare measure for distribution of social assistance. Jordan has many databases each for different functions but which are utilized in an ad-hoc manner when 2 “The National Aid Fund: Categorical Targeting versus Poverty-based Targeting”, World Bank, Technical Note submitted to GOJ in 2011. 3 Similar one-off cash transfer programs were implemented in 2005 and 2008. 9 the Government needs to target transfers. This is not ideal as the fragmentation of the databases across agency (Ministries, Social Security Corporation, NAF, etc.) means that duplications of beneficiaries and potential miscalculations of payments is high. Existing payroll lists of government and formal private sector employees do not contain information on family members, lack the information to predict consumption, and are biased towards higher-income groups. The registry of the NAF is biased towards lower income groups (about 60% of NAF benefits are received by the lowest 20% of the population) but the coverage is very small and, thus, missing a lot of potential beneficiaries of compensation and other safety net programs. 9. Furthermore, the Government wants to transition from the above broadly targeted compensation system to a more targeted approach in the future. A transition strategy could consist of maintaining the cash transfer for a much smaller group (for instance, the poorest 30-40 percent of the population), and adding more value for money to these transfers. Countries such as Indonesia continued cash transfers for the poorest group (after the one-off for one year), but then introduced human development components in such transfers by conditioning the cash on school attendance and health check-ups. In order to introduce this approach, a more accurate means of targeting is required than the current income-based system. 10. However, simply identifying the poor and vulnerable households and providing them with cash assistance is considered insufficient to keep families out of poverty in Jordan. Other countries have adopted “graduation policies” that help activate the poor to enter into the labor market and other tailor-made social programs. The Chile Solidario is one such successful program which relies on the use of trained social workers who manage each poor household as a case. The Jordan PRS has adopted such an approach, calling it the “Integrated Outreach Worker Program” (IOWP). The aim of the IOWP is to lift poor and vulnerable households out of poverty permanently. Box 1: Characteristics of the New Cash Transfer at Income Tax Department:  Eligibility criteria: (i) Resident Jordanian Households (household is the unit of account); (ii) Combined household annual income not to exceed JD10,000.  Amount of cash transfer: (i) The transfer amounts to JD70 per person per household per year; (ii) A ceiling of JD420 per household per year is set (equivalent to a maximum of 6 individuals per household); (iii) No taxes or fees will be deducted from the amount of the transfer; (iii) The program is expected to cost between JD350-400 million.  Application process: (i) Existing databases for (i) Public Sector employees and retirees, (ii) Military personnel and retirees, (iii) Social Security subscribers, and (iv) National Aide Fund (NAF) beneficiaries are used to cross check eligibility criteria. No need for application. All the others (private sector employees, unemployed and inactive) have to apply by filling a specific form. The application can be done in person: the form is available in all post offices, MoF centers, and Income and Sales Department offices, across the Kingdom. The application can also be done electronically through MoF website. https://cfs.gov.jo/ The forms include essentially information on household members’ income. The person filling the form will have to insert (i) his National ID Number (mandatory unified numb er for all Jordanians – equivalent to social security number in the USA for example), and (ii) the Civil Registration Number (this number is given to each household in Jordan, it is used to identify families and heads of households).  Payment Mechanism: Payments started on November 18th , 2012. Payments are made over three installments every 4 months. The transfer system operates as long as the average international price of oil barrel exceeds US$100 in the four months preceding any payment. If the average price falls below US$100, the transfer payments are automatically stopped. Disbursement is made automatically through payroll for Public Sector employees and retirees (including military), Social Security subscribers, and NAF beneficiaries. Disbursement for other applicants is made so through all branches of the “Housing Bank”. This is the second largest commercial bank in Jordan. 10 11. Therefore, in conjunction with its revamped targeted cash transfer program (and other anti-poverty programs detailed in the PRS), the Government will pilot the IOWP to enhance the effectiveness of its social assistance. The IOWP is considered one of the key elements of the PRS action plan and is perceived as addressing the “last mile” implementation challenges of government social programs by providing household-level tailored support through trained outreach workers. The IOWP will also serve an important function of validation and verification of self-reported information gathered by the National Unified Registry. By employing the outreach workers and through its validation process, the poverty impact of the subsidy compensation program could be improved. C. Higher Level Objectives to which the Project Contributes 12. The Government of Jordan recently launched the National Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) with an overall vision/goal of “containing and reducing poverty, vulnerability and inequality in the current socio-economic environment of Jordan, between 2013 and 2017, through the adoption of holistic and results-oriented approach, which targets poor and below middle class households” with several specific objectives.4 The project will contribute to five of the nine objectives as follows: (i) the project will help contribute to harmonizing all public, private and civil society poverty reduction programming through establishing a National Unified Registry; (ii) the project will deliver expanded, increasingly aligned and better-targeted social protection; measures to members of poor and vulnerable households through outreach worker program; (iii) to facilitate supply of more accessible and affordable package of basic services (health, education, vocational training and employment support) through developing a referral system and linking them to the appropriate services. Moreover, by “developing a unified national registry” for distributing the compensation (cash-transfer) the project will counter the negative welfare impacts on households as a result of cuts in subsidies and increase in fuel prices. The registry will help to better target the poor, i.e. by increasing the coverage and decreasing error of inclusion. Consequently, the Government will manage to significantly increase the poverty alleviation impact, even with the same amount of resources. Thus, both efficiency and effectiveness gains can realistically be expected to materialize. Second, by deploying “outreach worker program” will contribute to a comprehensive response to unique and multiple demands of poor and vulnerable groups of the population. 4 PRS Objectives: (1). To better harmonize all public, private and civil society poverty reduction programming; (2) To deliver expanded, increasingly aligned and better-targeted social protection; measures to members of poor and vulnerable households; (3) To provide more gainful employment to Jordanians, especially youth, women and persons with disabilities; (4) To work towards the elimination of child labor; (5) To provide micro and small business incentives and more effective small and micro- finance, to male and female members of poor and vulnerable households; (6) To supply more accessible and affordable basic health services to male and female members of poor and vulnerable households, the elderly and persons with disabilities; (7) To supply more accessible basic education services, and more effective vocational training, to male and female members of poor and vulnerable households, the elderly and persons with disabilities; (8) To alleviate the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation upon the members of poor and vulnerable households; and (9) To provide improved transport, housing and utilities to members of poor and vulnerable households. 11 Alignment with Transition Fund Objective 13. The objective of the Transition Fund is to improve the lives of citizens in transition countries, and to support the transformation currently underway in several countries in the region (the “Transition Countries”) by providing grants for technical cooperation5 to strengthen governance and public institutions, and foster sustainable and inclusive economic growth by advancing country-led policy and institutional reforms. 14. The proposed project aligns well with the objective of the Transition Fund in terms of promoting inclusive development with particular focus on social inclusion as follows: First, developing a national unified registry (NUR) for distributing the compensation (cash-transfer) will counter the negative welfare impacts on households as a result of cuts in subsidies and increase in fuel prices. Through the establishment of the registry, the Government will manage to significantly increase the poverty alleviation impact i.e. by increasing coverage and decreasing error of inclusion, even with the same amount of resources. Thus, both efficiency and effectiveness gains can realistically be expected to materialize. Second, in conjunction with its revamped targeted cash transfer program, the project will support the deployment of “outreach worker program” to further enhance the effectiveness of social assistance by lifting poor and vulnerable households out of poverty permanently. The IOWP will provide household-level tailored package of services that are perceived as addressing the “last-mile” implementation challenges of the government social programs and “graduate” poor households out of poverty by facilitating a comprehensive response to unique and multiple demands of poor and vulnerable groups of the population. Relationship to CAS 15. The World Bank Group’s Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) for FY12 -FY15 (Report 58114-JO) discussed by the Board of Executive Directors on February 1, 2012 is designed to help lay the foundation for sustainable growth and job creation through a three-pronged approach: (i) strengthen fiscal management and increase accountability through supporting fiscal management, public sector spending, private sector led growth and governance; (ii) strengthen the foundation for sustainable growth with a focus on competitiveness through supporting priority infrastructure, leveraging private sector investment, supporting improvements in the business environment, and supporting education and skills development; and (iii) enhance inclusion through social protection and local development by assisting the Government in better targeting its social assistance and subsidies to the poor and vulnerable, implementing the new Social Security Law and building local authorities while preserving local economic and social assets. 16. The proposed project is well aligned with the CPS priorities, specifically those focusing on fiscal consolidation, governance and social inclusion. The project will contribute to achieving two of the CAS priority areas: (i) helping to create fiscal space in order to protect against external shocks of high oil prices through fiscal consolidation process led by subsidy reform; (ii) enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of social protection system through better 5 Technical cooperation is defined in Paragraph 15. 12 subsidy targeting and reducing leakages. The project will help build on past support to the reform of Jordan’s safety net system while enhancing the inclusion of the poor in the development process and cushioning them against the high energy prices through the fiscal consolidation process. 17. It is envisaged that, through the proposed project, the efficiency and effectiveness of social safety nets will result in gains for the poor and large segments of the middle class against the external shocks of energy prices. Through creating a National Unified Registry for targeting safety nets and supporting the rollout of the Integrated Outreach Worker Program, the project will help increase coverage of the poor and decrease error of inclusion. By increasing the coverage of the poor and decreasing the error of inclusion, the Government will significantly improve the poverty alleviation impact of its safety net programs. II. PROJECT DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVES A. PDO 18. The project development objective is to improve the targeting of social safety net programs and develop an efficient outreach mechanism. B. Project Beneficiaries 19. The project’s direct beneficiaries will be the poor and middle income households. Although no special targeting of women will take place, it is expected that some 50 percent of beneficiaries will be women. This is the case for both the cash compensation program, as well as the outreach workers program. The indirect beneficiaries will be: (i) Ministry of Finance (MOF) and Income Sales and Tax Department (ISTD); (iii) Government of Jordan (GOJ) ministries concerned with building the registry and serving as referral to the integrated outreach worker program. The components will be implemented across Jordan. 20. Poor and middle income households: The project aims to benefit approximately 50-60 percent of the Jordanian population who will be most susceptible to the negative effects of subsidy removal and increased fuel prices. Among the above, some 22,400 poor households of the beneficiaries of cash transfers will be provided support through the IOWP pilot. 21. Ministry of Finance (MOF)/Income and Sales Tax Department (ISTD) and other Government Entities. MOF/ISTD will directly benefit from the project in terms of technical assistance they will receive to build the database, while increasing their capacity to manage and operate the database. Other government agencies will also benefit as they will receive technical support to carry out their role in providing the data on time to MOF/ISTD. C. PDO Level Results Indicators 22. Progress toward the PDO will be monitored through the following key indicators 13 (a) Direct project beneficiaries, in total number; percentage of which are female beneficiaries (Core Indicator); (b) Beneficiaries of safety net programs—subsidy compensation program; percentage of which are female beneficiaries (Core Indicator) (c) Beneficiaries of pilot integrated outreach worker program, in total number; percentage of which are female beneficiaries (Core Indicator); (d) Beneficiaries (poor households as defined by annual JD income from 0-2000/year), in percentage, as a share of total subsidy compensation program, as a measure of the targeting accuracy of the program. (e) Beneficiaries of outreach worker program, in percentage, who are receiving the services III. PROJECT DESCRIPTION A. Project Components 23. The project will aim to set up a single registry of potential beneficiaries for social assistance - the National Unified Registry (NUR) - that will be used to target subsidies and other government programs. To implement this electronic database, the project will support building: (i) a single electronic database of potential program beneficiaries; (ii) an efficient payment delivery mechanism; (iii) government capacity to deliver the program and for addressing complaints and grievances; and (iv) a monitoring and evaluation system. Once the database is assembled, detailed target populations, benefit schedules and fiscal cost scenarios can be derived. 24. To substantiate and complement the quality and reliability of the data in the NUR, the project will pilot the IOWP to harmonize with the compensation program while promoting social inclusion for other poverty reduction programs. The IOWP will bring a number of innovations to the project. First, it builds on a rigorous typology of households in poverty, making it possible to tailor poverty reduction solutions to the specific needs of the households, and to make government programs more responsive to the evolving needs of households. Second, it uses the household as the unit of analysis, making it possible to provide multiple solutions to get families out of poverty. Third, by relying on well-trained outreach workers who work directly with households, it solves the “last-mile” connectivity problem of most social government policies and programs, improving the impact of existing policies. Lastly, the IOWP will be utilized in validating the target populations of the NUR, and supporting the grievance process. 25. On the one hand, the IOWP will enhance the effectiveness of the NUR by addressing “last mile” implementation challenges of the program. On the other, it will become a cornerstone of achieving the PRS goals by facilitating the households to benefit from compensation program while serving as case managers to link these households with extended package of services to help them sustainably graduate from poverty and activating them into labor markets. An impact evaluation will be conducted to determine the success and scalability of the approach. 14 26. The project consists of two components: (i) Building and Using the National Unified Registry (NUR) for Targeting Safety Nets; and (ii) Piloting the Integrated Outreach Worker Program (IOWP). Component 1: Building and Using the NUR for Targeting Safety Nets (US$2.5 million). The component consists of two sub-components: 27. Sub-component 1(a)—Building a database of private/informal sector workers at ISTD: This will be one of the main activities under the unified registry project to be implemented by Income and Sales Tax Department (ISTD) which is the entity with legal authority to request income and other data from individuals on a confidential basis. In November 2012, the ISTD started collecting income information and other data for the implementation of the compensation cash program for fuel subsidy reform. To improve the accuracy of the database, the project will help adopt new ways to assess the welfare of households, such as introducing proxy means testing (PMT) methodologies to identify the variables that are better predictors of welfare and to prepare data collection strategies that ensure wide coverage of prospective beneficiaries and data accuracy. For building the database, the following activities will be designed and implemented: (a) defining the welfare ranking or assessment methodology; (b) developing and rolling out an information campaign; (c) submitting and processing of data electronically; (d) verifying and validating the data; (e) cleaning the data and making it available for use by different government agencies; and (f) developing and implementing a grievance redress system. 28. Sub-component 1(b): Developing and using the NUR at the MOF: Under this sub- component, a large number of existing databases (i.e. payroll databases of different government agencies, formal private sector workers, pensioners, military, data on beneficiaries of the National Aid Fund (NAF), property and vehicle registration databases, civil registry database) will be consolidated and updated regularly in the unified registry unit operating in the Ministry of Finance. A technical unit at MOF will be established to develop and manage the NUR. The Government will issue an administrative order to mandate agencies (central and local government and others) to submit specified data to the Unit, including specified format, variables, periodicity of submit, security protection, confidentiality, etc. The unification of databases under the Unit will save money, increase the accuracy of payroll data (resulting in fewer complaints) and take advantage of economies of scale in processing and software development. The NUR will be updated every two years with a follow-up survey for private sector/informal workers. This project – which will extend over three years - will finance the first two rounds of the NUR, i.e., the establishment of the database and one round of updating of the NUR. Subsequently, it is expected that the MOF and the ISTD will have gained sufficient experience and expertise to operate the system on their own. Verification and validation will be an integral part of the program with the support of the IOWP. It is estimated that at least 30 percent of the households need to be verified each time during the updating cycle of two years. 15 Component 2: Piloting the Integrated Outreach Worker Program (IOWP) (US$7.5 million): 29. The recently launched Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) for 2013-2017 includes IOWP as an integral part of its action plan. On the one hand, the IOWP will enhance the effectiveness of the NUR by addressing “last mile” implementation needs. On the other hand, it will become a cornerstone of achieving the goal of the PRS by helping the households graduating from poverty and activating them into the labor market. The project will finance the piloting of the IOWP in 3 governorates in Jordan reaching about 22,400 households. An impact evaluation will be conducted to determine the success and scalability of the approach. This component will be managed by MOPIC in partnership with a competent educational institution (i.e. university) and a lead NGO, and both will be selected through a competitive process. The component will comprise two sub-components: 30. Sub-component 2(a): Outreach Design, Planning and Training of Outreach Workers: The project will finance the: (i) assessing and documenting of available services and referral systems using evidence-based community assessment tools; (ii) developing of the train- the-trainer model which will incorporate supervision and follow-up trainings to assure quality control; (iii) establishing of the HH typology and selection criteria; (iv) establishing selection criteria for recruiting supervisors and outreach workers; and (v) collecting of comprehensive baseline data for households within the identified impact area using real-time mobile surveying technology. This initial survey will help to determine the unique combination of risk factors the household is demonstrating in order to assess the appropriate referrals and action plan. Training will be launched upon completion of the design of the program. A leading educational university will be contracted to conduct the training of 56 supervisors and will work with and supervise the supervisors as they train 896 outreach workers. The Government will select the supervisors and outreach workers with help of a lead NGO. The training and deployment of the workers will be phased to eventually reach 22,400 households. 31. Sub Component 2(b): Outreach Deployment and Monitoring: A lead NGO will be responsible for recruitment of the outreach workers based on the selection criteria developed under sub-component 2(a). The deployment will be launched in phases, first in urban areas to take advantage of higher population density and higher absolute number of households in poverty. Under the supervision of the supervisors who will be trained under sub-component 2(a), the outreach workers will conduct face-to-face visits/sessions with households (initial surveying), employing multi sessions and monitoring to ensure the desired outcomes for each family. Supervisors based at each center of the lead NGO will be responsible for their assigned outreach worker and their respective households. Supervision sessions will also serve to positively and continuously reinforce performance expectations and to augment an outreach worker's professional development. Real-time data collection will be a core part of the program. Not only will this information provide rapid feedback on program interventions and processes, allowing for quick and targeted course correction and quality control, but it will also allow the involved parties to assess the overall efficacy of the program through an impact evaluation. Furthermore, it will advance the collective understanding of the dynamics of poverty in Jordan and the strengths and weaknesses of “last mile” intervention programs in the Jordanian context, providing valuable feedback to policy and program decisions in the future. 16 32. Providing support to the Grievance Redress System (GRS) at ISTD will be an important element of IOWP program. To ensure that the outreach process is enhancing the effectiveness of the compensation program, it will be necessary to: (i) make available the relevant data from the households to ISTD to ensure the timely validation of the eligible households; (ii) ensure that the eligible households are registered at the unified registry and benefits are delivered to these households; and (iii) serve as mediators between ISTD and households to resolve any complaints and reduce the impact of potential conflict. The outreach workers will be physically present at the ISTD during the distribution period. Monitoring and Evaluation will be embedded in the design of all activities. Since this is a pilot activity, baseline data will be collected and evaluation parameters will be designed to gather the data over the project period to conduct the evaluation. 33. The project activities under both components will be sequenced to reinforce linkages while ensuring that they are implemented over a project period of four years. During the first year, while component 1 will focus on building the registry, Component 2 activities will be launched to design the program and train the outreach personnel. During the second and third years, the outreach workers will be deployed to support the implementation of the NUR and help the households in accessing the compensation program and extended package of services to sustainably graduate them from poverty. The fourth year will see the final stage of the IOWP pilot and implementation of the impact evaluation. B. Project Financing Financing Instrument 34. The financing instrument is an Investment Project Grant in the amount of US$9.5 million, which will be financed through trust fund financing. The project will be submitted for financing by MOPIC to the MENA Transition Fund. If approved, the project would be financed through a Recipient-executed grant agreement for US$9.5 million. Project Cost and Financing 35. The project costs and financing are detailed in the table below. 17 Table 3: Project Costs and Financing Project Costs (US$M) Trust Fund % Project Component Includes Financing Financing Government Contribution COMPONENT 1: BUILDING AND USING THE NATIONAL UNIFIED 100% REGISTRY FOR TARGETING SAFETY NETS Sub Comp1 (a): Building database of “informal” sector workers at ISTD 1.26 1.26 Sub Comp 1 (b): Developing and Managing the NUR at MOF 1.29 1.29 COMPONENT 2: PILOTING INTEGRATED OUTREACH WORKER 95% PROGRAM Sub Component 2 (a) : Outreach Design, Planning and Training 2.0 1.75 Sub Component 2 (b): Outreach Deployment 5.5 5.25 TOTAL 10.0 9.5 C. Lessons Learned and Reflected in the Project Design 36. Lessons learnt from World Bank operations relevant to this project are: (i) take into account implementation capacity in designing the project, (ii) establish monitoring and evaluation systems to ensure real time information on implementation of all project activities, flow of funds, as well as on project related output and outcome indicators; (iii) secure beneficiary participation at all levels to foster ownership and continued commitment to project development objectives, and (iv) pay significant attention to the time needed to implement reforms and to appropriately consider vested interests and their potential to delay reforms. 37. With respect to the technical aspects of the project design, the development of the unified registry draws on experience of Latin American countries such as Brazil (Cadastro Unico), Mexico, Colombia and other countries who have established unified registries for implementing conditional and/or unconditional cash transfer programs. The experience from these countries and other developing countries shows that the unified registry of beneficiaries has allowed for a faster response to crisis and/or emergency situations, similar to what Jordan is facing now. Building unified registries is however not easy, as they need to be objective, transparent and be credible for program users and beneficiaries. Therefore, the lessons learnt which are integrated into the project design are as follows: (i) the Government needs to develop objective and verifiable criteria for classifying people the same way, (ii) the need for verification of information through matching with the exiting different databases such as property, tax records, payroll, social security and others, (iii) the need for data verification and household assessment via home visits, especially when data from informal workers or others is self-reported, the iv) the need to procure and build state of the art information technology and communications and software solutions to support the unified registry system and (v) the need to implement credible and efficient grievance redress systems including appeals processes, and vi) monitoring and evaluation 18 38. Regarding the design of the outreach worker program, the project draws on best practice experience from developed (OECD) and developing countries that have used this approach to prevent and reduce the depth of poverty. Experience shows that poor people may not apply to the social programs for a number of reasons including: (i) the lack of information about existing programs; (ii) finding it hard to navigate the system and follow procedures; (iii) lack of money to pay for transport from villages to application centers; and (iv) required coaching for identifying their needs and applying to suitable program. The adoption of outreach worker approach will address all these lessons learnt to make it easier for households to benefit from the program and achieve desired outcomes. IV. IMPLEMENTATION A. Institutional and Implementation Arrangements (see Annex 3 for detailed implementation arrangement) 39. The project will be implemented by two agencies: (i) Ministry of Finance (MOF) and (ii) Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MOPIC). Several options were considered pertaining to the institutional and implementation arrangements and the MOF/MOPIC were deemed the more appropriate. In the case of the MOF/ISTD, its past experience with implementation of subsidy compensation programs (2005 and 2008) indicates strong systems, capacity, and ability to implement large reform programs. The MOF is also the lead agency responsible for the design of the subsidy strategy of Jordan and the World Bank, among other institutions (such as the IMF), working closely with MOF in this aspect. Finally, given the sensitivity of the data that will be collected and unified for the NUR, the MOF and the ISTD are the only agencies in Jordan with legal authority to carry this out. With regards to the IOWP, the MOPIC has a tradition of “incubating” novel ideas before mainstreaming them into other ministries such as the recently completed pilot for female community college graduates (supported by the World Bank). MOPIC has also been implementing the Enhanced Productivity Program for the past 10 years which supports NGOs and civil society organizations in implementing community programs for poverty reduction. 40. Component 1 (NUR) will be implemented by MOF as follows: a NUR unit at MOF will be created for building and managing the NUR. The NUR unit in will play a critical role in assembling the database with existing information from all formal sector agencies (public and private), and will oversee the entire Unified Database System with technical support from ISTD who will be responsible for building, updating and maintaining the database of the informal private sector and others. The NUR will consist of highly qualified staff (econometricians, survey specialists, MIS, M&E and support staff) and will be responsible for the effective use of the unified registry for delivering the compensation (cash transfer), and establishing a grievance redress system to address complaints and grievances. The Government will issue an administrative order to mandate agencies (central and local government and others) to submit specified data to the NUR Unit. This will include specified format, variables, periodicity of submit, security protection, confidentiality, etc. 19 41. Component 2 (IOWP) will be implemented as follows: MOPIC will be responsible for the overall management and coordination of IOWP, and will select a competent educational institution (i.e. university) and a lead NGO to implement sub-component 2(a) and 2(b) respectively. An IOWP unit will be established at the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MOPIC) to coordinate activities of all implementing partners and provide fiduciary management support. It will be supported by a fiduciary management team including procurement and financial officers headed by the project manager. To implement sub- component 2 (a)—outreach design, planning and training, MOPIC will select a firm (i.e., an educational/academic institution) on a competitive basis with adequate experience in designing and rolling out the social outreach models. Under the supervision of MOPIC, the selected firm will be responsible for providing strategic, advisory and technical support on the design, management, and deployment of the Program, with particular emphasis on the assessments leading up to and the development of curriculum, training and supervisory models, providing the training to the supervisors and outreach workers, design of service delivery and referral systems, and the evaluations thereafter. To implement sub-component 2 (b)--outreach deployment and management, MOPIC will select a local lead NGO with extensive contextual knowledge, network of outreach centers and experience in implementing programs addressing a range of challenges related to poverty in Jordan. This NGO will be recruited to serve as the primary implementation partner on the ground. The lead NGO will be responsible for recruiting the supervisors and outreach workers and will implement the outreach worker deployment as per the design of the outreach program. 42. For Component 2, the procurement functions will be carried out by MOPIC. MOPIC will facilitate selection of an educational/academic institution for program planning and designing; and a lead NGO for the program deployment, on competitive basis. Their work will be monitored against the specific deliverables determined by MOPIC. It is to be noted that MOPIC will have to provide a justification for the single-source selection of both the education/academic institution and the NGO if contracting is not following a competitive selection process. MOPIC will manage both the contracts. MOPIC has the adequate capacity to carry out the procurement functions of component 2. B. Results Monitoring and Evaluation 43. Project Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E): M&E will be an integral part of the program. The program executing units at both ISTD and MOPIC will put in place a strong monitoring and evaluation component to monitor progress during program implementation and address issues in a timely manner, especially key activities such as building the database and payments and outreach worker program. It also needs to introduce wider questions on participation of different programs in the upcoming household surveys to measure benefit incidence, as well as any expenditure or consumption impact of the programs.6 The program unit also needs to pay independent firms or research centers to conduct spot checks, audits and performance evaluations. With regard to outreach worker program, comprehensive data will be collected by the outreach workers to effectively identify, classify, and assign households to the 6 Program impacts can be measured using quasi-experimental design techniques such as regression discontinuity analysis (given that a PMT selection mechanism is used) or propensity scoring methods. 20 outreach workers. The data collected will be used to: (i) create base-line data from which impact can be measured; (ii) supervise the performance of outreach workers; (iii) monitor household progress; (iv) continuously improve the program and the provision of welfare services based upon intermediate outcome data. In addition to the M&E integrated in the project, the Bank will execute an independent impact evaluation on the results of the project. C. Sustainability 44. The project is supporting implementation of activities identified by the Government of Jordan as the key priorities of the National Poverty Reduction Strategy. First, the building of the National Unified Registry to deliver targeted social assistance and other social programs will become integral to Government’s social safety net program and is likely to be budgeted as part of regular MOF and/or government regular budget. Moreover, strengthening of administration and management of MOF/ISTD, it will help build a well-coordinated system to harness the various sources of social assistance and programs, improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their programs, as well as enhancing their fiscal sustainability. Moreover the fiscal saving from the new cash transfer program appear considerable (JD35-400 million is the cost of the compensation program versus a JD800 million cost of the fuel subsidy) which will reduce some fiscal pressure to scale back until the fuel prices stabilize and some poverty reduction impact is realized from the compensation program. Second, the use of Outreach Worker Program is precisely to help the Government in sustaining the gains from compensation program and other poverty reduction programs by reaching the most poor and vulnerable with holistic package of social services tailored to their needs to enhance the program effectiveness and sustainability of outcomes. The IOWP will lay a solid foundation for graduating the poor from poverty and activating into labor markets. The fiscal cost of sustaining the pilot IOWP is insignificant, thus, it is highly likely that their deployment will be sustained through the regular Government budget. V. KEY RISKS AND MITIGATION MEASURES A. Risk Ratings Summary Stakeholder Risk Moderate Implementing Agency Risk - Capacity Substantial - Governance Moderate Project Risk - Design Substantial - Social and Environmental Low - Program and Donor Low - Delivery Monitoring and Sustainability Substantial Overall Implementation Risk Substantial B. Description 45. The overall implementation risk for this operation is Substantial. There are risks pertaining to political economy issues, including increasing social pressures in the country and 21 associated demands for the Government to spend more on subsidies, thereby making it more difficult to target benefits to the poorest segment of the population. There are stakeholder risks due to the fact that the project requires the involvement and cooperation of a number of ministries. Lack of understanding of the technicalities of the program, its long term benefits, and the negative connotation around subsidy reform as presented in the public media could exacerbate this risk. Nonetheless, these risks are being mitigated by a well-designed and timely public information campaign which is expected to be instrumental in this regard, as well as helping to manage expectations. Moreover, building consensus among the participating ministries at all levels of program design and seeking their participation to ensure their ownership of the program will play an important role in keeping the commitment of key stakeholders steady through implementation. VI. APPRAISAL SUMMARY A. Economic and Financial Analyses 46. The NUR is expected to have tangible economic impact through a significant increase in efficiency and effectiveness in the use of public resources allocated for the subsidy compensation program. In 2011, Jordan spent over US$2.3 billion in 2011 on subsidies. Given Jordan’s significant deficit and debt level, the Government underwent drastic reductions in fiscal spending through the removal of fuel subsidies to balance its overall budget. Literature and specific studies on Jordan have shown the level of regressivity in universal fuel subsidy. In the case of Jordan, for example, over 50% of Jordan’s kerosene and petrol fuel subsidy benefit is distributed to the top decile of the income distribution. This was comparable to other countries in the MNA region where high expenditure on fuel subsidy is correlated with increased distribution of benefits to the highest quintile in the come distribution.7 47. The overall spending on the fuel subsidy compensation scheme will be US$370 million per year.8 Beyond the generated fiscal savings, the program caps the distribution of benefits to the lowest 7 deciles of the income distribution.9 The targeting generosity has also improved in favor of lower-income households. After the initial increase of around 0.1 – 0.2 JD per litre for kerosene and premium fuels, the average per annum cash transfer payment (70JD or around US$100) gave disproportionate direct compensation per litre to lower income deciles (who generally consume less fuel). Further, it placed a cap on maximum amount of subsidy transferred per household for beneficiaries. 7 It is not within the scope of this economic analysis to demonstrate the established regressive nature of subsidies. For more information see : Coady, David, del Granado, Francisco, The Unequal Benefits of Fuel Subsidies: A Review of Evidence for Developing Countries No.10/202 , IMF Working Papers. Washington D.C.: International Monetary Fund. For more evidence related to benefit distribution of fuel subsidy in the case of Jordan, see: Beasant-Jones, John “Jordan- Price Shocks and Subsidy Reform Pverty and Fiscal Impact Study. Working Paper, Unpublished. World Bank 8 Projected amount based on total amount of payments based on payment #2 of 3 tranches expected. Payment excludes operating cost and direct transfers made by the Jordanian military 9 ISTD places a limit of less JD 10,000 per annum (US$14,100) to qualify for the cash compensation scheme 22 48. Table 1 shows the administrative cost per beneficiary household of adopting an alternative mechanism to universal commodity price subsidy. The analysis estimates 903,000 beneficiary-households during its first year, the program’s administrative costs amount to $9.02 per household or 2.2 percent. The analysis assumes US$1.41 million in operating costs for the program. In addition, the program will incur an annual US$4.24 million in transaction costs by the banking institution that transmits payments to beneficiary households. In addition to these expected recurring costs, the Bank also assumes a fixed-cost in the first year of the program intervention of US$2.5 million to improve the technical infrastructure of the national registry and perform needed data consolidation tasks discussed in the project. Table 1: Cost-Efficiency of NUR for Subsidy Compensation Scheme Administrative Costs, of which: US$ 10 Operating costs (current – ongoing) 1.4 Infrastructure (investment costs)11 0.9 Database consolidation (consultants, 1.6 vendors)12 Transaction Costs (payment)13 4.2 Cost of Fuel Subsidy Compensation Scheme Total payments (in 3 tranches) 370 Total Administrative Cost 8.2 Number of Beneficiary Households 903,134 Administrative cost as percent of total benefit payments 2.2% Administrative cost per beneficiary HH 7.4 49. In benchmarking against administrative costs of more developed SSN programs, Jordan’s NUR has relatively low-cost administrative cost (Table 2). This is due, in part, to the highly automated enrollment and payment mechanism provided by the public sector (which adds compensation payments directly to payroll). 10 Current estimated costs for operation of the program (financed by the GoJ) 11 Infrastructure costs are part of Component 1 NUR 12 Database consolidation is part of Component 1 NUR 13 Service fee to Housing Bank of Jordan (1 Million JD per tranche payment) 23 Table 2: Cost-efficiency comparison by program14 Country, Program, and Year of Implementation Administrative cost of program total cost Jordan: National Unified Registry, (est 2016)15 2% Albania: Ndihme Eknomika, 2004 7% Armenia: Family Poverty Benefits Program, 2% 2005 Bulgaria: Guaranteed Minimum Income 10% Program, 2004 Kyrgz Republic: Unified Monthly Benefit 10% Program, 2004 Romania: Guaranteed Minimum Income 32% Program, 2005 Colombia: Familias en Accion, 2004 11% Mexico: PROGRESA, 1997-2000 6% Average (excluding Jordan NUR) 11% 50. The Government’s adoption of a well-designed and unified targeting system will greatly benefit the government’s fiscal priorities through anticipated reduction in leakage if the registry is utilized by the various social safety net programs in Jordan. In the case of the NAF for example, an anticipated 16% of beneficiaries are not poor. Although little information is available on the number of beneficiaries who receive multiple sources of assistance from Jordan’s fragmented safety nets, a fiscal (although unverifiable) saving can occur. Administratively, cost-savings will be expected from the utilization of a common targeting system. Implication for subscribing to NUR will include reduced IT infrastructure and server maintenance costs for relevant line agencies, share communications platform and software applications, reducing the need for duplicative investment in agencies providing social safety net assistance. B. Technical 51. The project is technically sound. The introduction of the unified registry in ISTD/MOF draws on good practice examples from a number of countries and are adequately customized to the local conditions. The MIS and ICT solutions chosen represent a good balance between functionality and cost. The chosen model of outreach program is based on best practice examples from OECD countries and takes into account the experience of both government and non- government service providers. The reliance on community based approaches to service provision for poorest and vulnerable and their involvement in designing package of services tailored to their needs has proven to be a cost-efficient and effective approach to lifting poor and vulnerable households out of poverty permanently. 14 Source of administrative cost: Margaret Gros, Carlo del Ninno, Emil Tesliuc (2008), For Protection and Promotion: The Desing and Implementation of Effective Safety Nets. Washington D.C.: World Bank 15 N.B. the anticipated National Unified Registry operating costs assumes service to one program; the fuel cash compensation scheme. As other programs are part of the registry, operating cost may be altered accounting for costs incurred for administration of programs by responsible agencies (e.g. education scholarship, health, etc). 24 C. Financial Management 52. The World Bank undertook an assessment of the FM systems within MOF and updated its previous assessment of the MOPIC. The overall FM risk is “Substantial”. With mitigation measures in place, the project will have acceptable project financial management arrangements; its financial management risk rating will be “Moderate”. The assessment concluded that with the implementation of agreed-upon actions, the proposed FM arrangements will satisfy the minimum requirements under OP/BP10.00. Annex 3 provides additional information on the FM assessment and the recommended mitigation measures. The detailed financial management capacity assessment and arrangements are available in the project file. 53. The Project’s Components (Component (1) related to “creating a National Unified Registry (NUR)” and Component (2) related to “Piloting Integrated Outreach Worker Program” (IOWP)) are going to be implemented separately by MOF and MOPIC, respectively. For implementing those two components, a NUR Unit will be established at MOF and an IOWP Unit will be established at MOPIC. Sub-Component (b) under component 2 will involve hiring of a leading local NGO and an Educational/Academic institution. Qualified accountants will be identified from the Finance Department of each ministry to handle the financial management and disbursement aspects of its respective component. MOPIC has solid experience with the World Bank financial management and disbursement guidelines gained from the implementation of past and ongoing World Bank-financed projects, while MOF has limited experience with implementing of World Bank-financed projects. Adequate training by the Bank will be provided to the MOF Accountant to ensure that he understands and can apply World Bank Policies and Procedures. The two accountants at both ministries (MOPIC and MOF) are and will remain public sector employees. 54. To ensure that funds are readily available for project implementation, two Designated Accounts (DAs) will be opened, one for MOF and one for MOPIC, at the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ). These accounts will be managed separately by each Ministry. The Project will be required to generate quarterly Interim un-audited financial reports (IFRs) in compliance with International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS). The NUR Unit/MOF will submit within 30 days quarterly IFRs to IOWP Unit/MOPIC for consolidation. The IOWP Unit/MOPIC will prepare consolidated IFRs and will be submitted to the Bank by no later than 45 days after the end of each quarter. An external auditor, acceptable to the World Bank, will be appointed based on Terms of Reference (TORs) acceptable to the Bank to Audit the project consolidated financial statements. A Project Operational Manual (POM), acceptable to the Bank, has been developed and describes the roles and responsibilities of MOF and MOPIC in relation to financial management and disbursements. D. Procurement 55. The World Bank undertook an assessment of the procurement system and capacity in place at the Ministry of Finance (MoF) and the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MoPIC), being the proposed implementing agencies of the envisaged project. Ministry of Finance (MOF) for Component 1 (National Unified Registry- NUR) shall ensure the establishment of a NUR unit for the targeting activity. (b) Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MOPIC) for Component 2 (Integrated Outreach Worker Program- IOWP), will be 25 responsible for the overall coordination of IOWP, and will be in charge of selecting a competent consulting firm or most probably a NGO under sub-component 2(a) and an educational/academic institution under sub-component 2(b). 56. The procurement capacity assessment identified that the overall procurement implementation risk is Substantial. The following measures are proposed to mitigate the risk rating to Moderate: (i) ensuring proper coordination between the two agencies of the project, especially with respect to procurement planning; (ii) usage of procurement plan as a monitoring tool for processing timely activities and not only as reporting tool; (iii) preparing a procurement section in the Project Operation Manual (POM) to integrate procurement processing but also forms and standardized documents; (iv) systematizing record keeping, and initiating electronic archiving of procurement processing; (v) enhancing capacity for appropriate support (staff, training, tools) to properly prepare the project procurement by linking project objectives and procurement plan; (vi) agreeing on a training program (internal/ external) to be implemented over the life of the project that is both relevant and practical; (vii) establishing/improving and implementing complaint management system; (viii) reviewing causes for recurrent amendments and cost overruns, if any; and (ix) developing suitable corrections to planning, cost estimates, lack of proper designs, technical specifications, etc. 57. Project guidelines: “Guidelines On Preventing and Combating Fraud and Corruption in Projects Financed by IBRD Loans and IDA Credits and Grants” dated October 15, 2006 and updated January 2011, World Bank “Guidelines: Procurement of Goods, Works and Non- consulting Services under IBRD Loans and IDA Credits and Grants by World Bank Borrowers” dated January 2011 and World Bank “Guidelines: Selection and Employment of Consultants under IBRD Loans and IDA Credits and Grants by World Bank Borrowers” dated January 2011, shall apply to the project. 58. Procurement methods for Goods, Works and non-consulting services: The (IAs) are expected to conduct: (i) international competitive bidding (ICB) for which the Bank standard documents shall be used, (ii) national competitive bidding (NCB) for which the IAs shall use the Jordanian Standard Bidding Documents after integrating the provisions listed in the Grant Agreement, procurement schedule, (iii) community participation, (iv) shopping, and (v) direct contract. 59. Procurement methods for Selection of consultants: MoF and MoPIC are expected to conduct: (i) Quality and Cost Based Selections (QCBS), (ii) Least-Cost Selection (LCS), (iii) Selection Based on the Consultants’ Qualifications (CQS), (iv) Single Source Selection (SSS), and (v) Selection of Individual Consultants. 60. Particular procurement: Use of Nongovernmental Organizations a (NGO) and Educational/Academic Institutions under component 2. Particular procurement: Use of Nongovernmental Organizations a (NGO) and Educational/Academic Institutions under component 2. MOPIC is envisaging appointing a lead NGO and an educational/academic institution for Component 2. In view of the nature of the activity, the selected NGO and educational/academic institution, should have extensive capacity in social work outreach, and past experience in designing the relevant training, respectively. The selection will be on a competitive basis, although following market research, the MOPIC may request single sourcing 26 based on sufficient justification. In this case, the Bank will have to clear the submitted justification for using single source method as per the guidelines requirements (Selection of Consultants Guidelines Clause 3.9). Moreover, capacity assessments of the proposed NGO and educational/academic institution shall be carried out. MOPIC will have to be vigilant in drafting Terms of Reference (ToRs) and will insure including in the contract all requirements that those entities will be observing with respect to transparency. Managing and monitoring selected consultants, field workers, etc. shall be documented. A particular focus shall be given with respect to record keeping. It is advised that MOPIC shall use the lump sum contracts and will be issuing payments against delivered services. The project shall ensure avoiding any conflict of interest that these particular selections may create. 61. Procurement plans: A single and simple procurement plan for the life of the project is developed to cover all project activities. Updates of the plan shall be reviewed by the Bank at least twice a year or as necessary. Concerning Component 2, simplified procurement plans, or any alternative, may be prepared by the selected entities (NGO and Educational Institution), on the basis of an agreed list of eligible activities to be implemented. 62. Operation manuals. The procurement section shall specify the procurement processing and contract management arrangements. It shall also tackle the record-keeping requirements and the complaint mechanism arrangements. E. Social (including Safeguards) 63. The project will respond directly to several social concerns of Jordanian citizens through: (i) supporting building of unified registry that would identify the poor and help deliver the cash assistance to all Jordanians in a fair and transparent manner; and (ii) by putting in place a comprehensive outreach worker program that will reach the most poor and vulnerable with integrated package of services tailored to their specific needs through a referral and case management methods. Therefore, the social impact of this project is likely to be very positive and there is no specific location or characteristic that is of relevance for social safeguard analysis. F. Environment (including Safeguards) 64. No environmental issues are foreseen. G. Other Safeguards Policies Triggered (if required) 65. No safeguard policies are triggered. 27 Annex 1: Results Framework and Monitoring JORDAN: Project Development Objective (PDO): The project development objective is to “improve the targeting of social safety nets programs and develop an efficient outreach mechanism”. Cumulative Target Values Description (indicator Core definition etc.) Unit of Data Source/ Responsibility for PDO Level Results Indicators* Baseline Frequency Measure Methodology Data Collection YR 1 YR 2 YR3 YR4 Indicator One: Direct project Annual Ministry of Ministry of Sum of beneficiaries of beneficiaries: Finance/ISTD Finance/ISTD subsidy compensation Databases program and outreach (a) Of safety net programs worker program (subsidy compensation Number 0 0 0 3.4 million program) following new targeting schemes Implementing NGO databases MOPIC 0 6,400 14,000 22,000 (b) Of outreach worker program (c) Of which are female percentage 50 50 50 Indicator Two: Beneficiaries of Annual Ministry of Ministry of Beneficiaries = safety net programs Finance/ISTD Finance/ISTD Households whose annual Number 0 0 0 3.4 million Databases income is below JD10,000 (a) Total will benefit from the program. This will cover Percentage 50 50 50 approx 70% of Jordanian (b) Of which are female population) Indicator Three: Poor households as Percentage 30 32 35 40 Annual Ministry of Ministry of “Poor households” is a share of total beneficiaries of Finance/ISTD Finance/ISTD defined as those whose subsidy compensation program databases incomes range from JD 0- 2000/year according to MOPIC/MOF policy that established the Subsidy Compensation Program. 28 Indicator Four: Beneficiaries of Percentage 0 50 50 50 Annual Implementing Ministry of Beneficiaries = Poor outreach worker program who are NGO database Planning in household receiving the services and/or survey partnership with the implementing partners INTERMEDIATE RESULTS Intermediate Result (Component One): (i) Government databases on beneficiaries consolidated into single database; (ii) MOF delivers compensation based using National Unified Registry database Intermediate Result indicator One: Yes/NO No Yes Yes Yes Annual Revised ISTD ISTD will use additional Adopt modified welfare ranking to application form welfare indicators to assess household eligibility for establish eligibility. subsidy compensation program Intermediate Result indicator Two: Yes/No No Yes Yes Yes Annual GRS reports ISTD/MOF Grievance Redress System (GRS) developed and functional. Intermediate Result Indicator Three: Yes/No No Yes Government databases on beneficiaries consolidated into single database Intermediate Result Indicator Four: Yes/No No Yes MOF delivers compensation based using NUR database Intermediate Result Indicator Five: Percentage 0 70% 70% 70% Data collected is verified Intermediate Result Indicator Six: Yes/No No Yes Other Government agencies using NUR in delivering services and assistance Intermediate Results (Component Two): (i) Outreach workers fully integrated in poverty pockets; (ii) poorest households are registered in NUR; (iii) introducing referral system and case management; and (iv) tailoring and delivering services to the needs of households in poverty pockets Intermediate Result Indicator One: Number 0 256 576 896 Quarterly NGO database MOPIC in Outreach workers = Skilled Outreach Workers deployed partnership with personnel to be recruited the lead NGO for household case management and supporting the grievance system at NUR 29 Intermediate Result indicator Two: Number 0 16 36 56 Annual NGO database MOPIC in Supervisors = personnel to Supervisors trained to train the partnership with be recruited as part of the outreach workers the lead NGO outreach program to train and supervise the outreach workers Intermediate Result Indicator Three: Percent of 0 25 50 50 Annual NGO database MOPIC in Households contacted by Case management approach used to Households and rapid partnership with outreach workers assessing the needs of selected assessment the lead NGO households participating in the reports from the program. households 30 Annex 2: Detailed Project Description JORDAN: Support to Implementation of National Unified Registry and Outreach Program for Targeting Social Assistance Project Context and Description 1. The program will aim to set up a single registry of potential beneficiaries for social assistance - the National Unified Registry (NUR) - that will be used to target subsidies and government programs to compensate the households that may be relatively more affected by the subsidy reform program. To implement this electronic database, the project will support building: (i) a single electronic database of potential program beneficiaries; (ii) an efficient payment delivery mechanism; (iii) government capacity to deliver the program and for addressing complaints and grievances; and (iv) a monitoring and evaluation system. Once the database is assembled, detailed target populations, benefit schedules and fiscal cost scenarios can be derived. 2. The project will build the prospective unified registry using two complementary approaches (or “mixed method” approach). The first involves using existing databases such as the payroll with wages and salaries of all public agencies and formal sector workers, tax information, property and civil registry databases. The second involves collecting data (via a self administered questionnaire) from private sector/informal sector workers (35-40 percent of work force) on key variables that permit welfare assessment in an objective and transparent manner. The project will also provide for specific measures and technical assistance resources to ensure that the database is actually used by the intended programs. 3. To substantiate and complement the quality and reliability of the data in the NUR, the project will pilot the IOWP to harmonize with the compensation program while promoting social inclusion for other poverty reduction programs. The IOWP will bring a number of innovations to the project. First, it builds on a rigorous typology of households in poverty, making it possible to tailor poverty reduction solutions to the specific needs of the households, and to make government programs much more responsive to the evolving needs of households. Second, it uses the household as the unit of analysis, making it possible to provide multiple solutions to get families out of poverty. Third, by relying on well-trained outreach workers who work directly with households, it solves the “last-mile” connectivity problem of most social government policies and programs, improving the impact of existing policies. Lastly, the IOWP will be utilized in validating the target populations and supporting the grievance process. The project consists of two components: 1. Building and Using the National Unified Registry (NUR) for Targeting Safety Nets 2. Piloting Integrated Outreach Worker Program (IOWP) 31 Component 1: Building and Using the National Unified Registry for Targeting Safety Nets (US$2.5 million) 4. The component will comprise of two sub-components: a) Sub-component 1(a)—Building a database of “informal” sector workers at ISTD: This will be one of the main activities under the unified registry project. The Government has assigned this task to the Income and Sales Tax Department (ISTD) which is the entity with legal authority to request income and other data from individuals on a confidential basis. In November 2012, the ISTD started collecting income information and other data from individuals and households for the implementation of the compensation cash program for fuel subsidy reform. The process will be further supported with staff and information technology (IT) to build the registry for the private/informal sector. Thus, the project will support the financing of technical and other resources to improve the accuracy of this database, by adopting new ways to assess the welfare of households, such as introducing proxy means testing (PMT) methodologies that are used in other countries with similar large informal sectors. This will involve estimating expenditure or income models to identify the variables that are better predictors of welfare and to prepare data collection strategies that ensure wide coverage of prospective beneficiaries and data accuracy. The project will finance the design and implementation of several activities for building this database, including the following: a. Defining the welfare ranking or assessment methodology. Several alternatives can be considered, including the proxy means test (PMT), for which advances in expenditure models have been made. Under this alternative, a simple two page questionnaire can be developed to request data on critical variables that provide strong indications of welfare and consumption patterns of households. b. Developing and rolling out an information campaign. To minimize misunderstanding of the compensation program, the project will support a good dissemination and information campaign. This will also avoid any reluctance on part of higher income self-employed that do not want to report income and/or assets and lower income groups that may be afraid of the ISTD. So the project will also finance a good dissemination and information campaign so as to minimize misunderstanding of project objectives and strategies. c. Electronic data submission and processing: Once the questionnaire is ready and tested, the Government will post it online for prospective beneficiaries. The beneficiaries will apply online and data will be downloaded and processed so that it will ready for use. d. Verifying and Validating the Data: To ensure that the data is reliable for decision making purposes, the documentation for the data will be verified followed by in-field validation. Outreach workers trained in data validation and deployed as part of “Outreach Worker” program may be utilized to assist in reviewing the information in the field, to “flag” the data with qualifiers when criteria are not met, and to prepare the data validation report. e. Cleaning the data and making it available for use by different government agencies. This step will involve cross checking of the data with other databases held by the Unit 32 at the Ministry of Finance, and entering into agreements with different government and or non-government users as agreed by the Government. f. Developing and implementing a grievance redress system to deal with possible inclusion and exclusion errors for the different levels used for targeting benefits. The outreach worker program will form an important element of the grievance redress system at ISTD. The “outreach workers” will provide support to ISTD in cases involving complaints and disputes. b) Subcomponent 1 (b): Developing and using the NUR at the MOF: Jordan has a large number of electronic databases such as payroll data of different government agencies, formal private sector workers, pensioners, military, data on beneficiaries of the National Aid Fund (NAF), property and vehicle registration databases, civil registry database, and others that can be used as a starting point for a sound unified registry. These data sets provide information on wages and salaries, properties and other assets which can be used to assess the socio-economic conditions of families and determine their eligibility for targeted social programs. These data sets will be consolidated and updated regularly in the unified registry unit operating in the Ministry of Finance. The Government will issue an administrative order to mandate agencies (central and local government and others) to submit specified data to the Unit, including specified format, variables, periodicity of submit, security protection, confidentiality, etc. The unification of databases under the Unit will save money, increase the accuracy of payroll data (resulting in fewer complaints) and take advantage of economies of scale in processing and software development. 5. It is expected that every two years the NUR will be updated (in the case of the private sector/informal workers, a follow-up survey will be conducted). This project – which will extend over three years - will finance the first two rounds of the NUR, i.e., the establishment of the database and one round of updating of the NUR. Subsequently, it is expected that the MOF and the ISTD will have gained sufficient experience and expertise to operate the system on their own. 6. Validating and using NUR for Targeting: Verification and validation will be an integral part of the program with the support of the outreach worker program. It is estimated that at least 30 percent of the households need to be verified each time during the updating cycle of two years. The project will also support promoting and facilitating the use of NUR for targeting social and compensation programs. For this, the project will finance preparation of promotional and education material about the database, provide training and technical assistance to staff managing the information system and other user programs, and provide support to development and maintenance of software applications. 7. Lastly, to effectively promote the registry, the Government will: (a) Mandate the use of such data through a government directive and/or decree, as has been done in other countries such as Brazil (decree mandating the use of Cadastro Unico) or Colombia (ministerial decision on the use of Sisben). (b) Ensure provision of technical support to user agencies as needed through making available adequate IT infrastructure and staff to manage large databases, to produce updates if needed and to report back on the use of such databases. The project will 33 finance technical support to user agencies as needed. This support can include upgrading of IT facilities and software and training and hiring of specialized key staff if needed. Ideally, the Central Technical Unit at the MOF will develop software applications and interfaces that will make the use of the database much easier and faster through internet or secure broadband networks. Component 2: Piloting Integrated Outreach Worker Program (IOWP) (US$ 7.5 million) 8. The recently launched Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) for 2013-2017 includes IOWP as an integral part of its action plan. On one hand, the IOWP will enhance the effectiveness of the NUR by addressing “last mile” implementation challenges of the program. On the other, it will become a cornerstone of achieving PRS goals by helping the households graduating from poverty and activating them into labor markets. The project will finance the piloting of the IOWP in 3 governorates in Jordan reaching about 22,400 households. An impact evaluation will be conducted to determine the success and scalability of the approach. 9. The component will consist of two sub-components: a) Sub-component 2 (a): Outreach Designing, Planning and Training of Outreach Workers:  Planning and Designing: The key preparatory activities will involve: (i) assessing and documenting available services and referral systems using evidence-based community assessment tools; (ii) developing the train-the-trainer model which will incorporate supervision and follow-up trainings to assure quality control; (iii) establishing HH typology and selection criteria; (iv) establishing selection criteria for recruiting supervisors and outreach workers; and (v) collecting comprehensive baseline data for households within the identified impact area using real-time mobile surveying technology. This initial survey will help to determine the unique combination of risk factors the household is demonstrating in order to assess the appropriate referrals and action plan. Concomitantly, an assessment of the human resource policy and procedural requirements will be conducted to most expeditiously facilitate desired outcomes that are sustainable.  Training: Upon completion of the preparatory activities, the first group of approximately 15 supervisors will undergo intensive training to train and supervise outreach workers. The first group of supervisors will be carefully vetted by the lead NGO. Thereafter, each supervisor will train approximately 250 outreach workers for approximately three to four weeks and provide ongoing supervision and support once intervention activities are underway. The training will be conducted by a qualified university, which will conduct the training of supervisors and will work with and supervise the supervisors as they train the outreach workers. Because the issues that households face are complex and interrelated, the outreach workers will be trained in and use evidence-based assessment and culturally congruent intervention skills that can empower individuals and households during these transitions aimed at sustainability. The training and deployment of the workers will be phased to eventually reach 222,400 households. 34 b) Sub-component 2 (b): Outreach Deployment and Monitoring  Recruitment and Deployment of Outreach Workers: A lead NGO will be responsible for recruitment of the outreach workers based on the selection criteria developed under sub-component 1. The program will be launched in phases, first in urban areas to take advantage of higher population density and higher absolute number of households in poverty. Under the supervision of the supervisors who will be trained under sub- component 1, the outreach workers will conduct face-to-face interaction with households (initial surveying), employing multi sessions and monitoring to ensure the desired outcomes for each family. Because each household will need different interventions, the time that an outreach worker will spend with a household may vary from 1-2 hours per week to 1 hour per month, depending on the portfolio of interventions and activities. The gradual scaling back of engagement and ultimate graduation from the Program will be decided on an individual household basis in consultation with the supervisor. Supervisors based at each center of the lead NGO will be responsible for their assigned outreach worker and their respective households. As such, it will be imperative to the success of the program that they use the data collected at the household levels in conjunction with weekly supervision sessions to monitor both the work of the outreach worker and the household's progress. Supervision sessions will also serve to positively and continuously reinforce performance expectations and to augment an outreach worker's professional development. Table 1: Phased Outreach Worker Program New Supervisors New Outreach New Households Total Households served trained Workers trained reached at end of phase Phase I 16 256 6400 Phase II 20 320 8000 14,400 Phase III 20 320 8000 22,400 10. In order to maintain quality control of the supervisor-outreach worker-household interactions, and adhere to budget restrictions, the ratio between the three entities should remain at or below an average of 1:16:25 - specifically, one supervisor for 16 outreach workers; each outreach worker works with an average of 25 households, depending upon intensity and effort required in households. We envision that the actual number of households to outreach worker will depend upon the assessed levels of effort. Where households are not multi-problem, the outreach worker may have a workload with more households. Where there are households with multiple, complex problems, the outreach worker may necessarily have fewer households assigned. Table 1 illustrates the estimated phased deployment of outreach workers with the goal of reaching at least 22,400 households in three phases.  Real-time data collection: Real-time data collection is a core component of the planning and deployment of the Program. Not only will this information provide rapid feedback on program interventions and processes, allowing for quick and targeted course correction and quality control, but it will also allow the involved parties to assess the overall efficacy of the 35 Program through an impact evaluation. To achieve the rigorous research design required to comprehensively evaluate the Program, it will be necessary to carefully review existing data and information gaps in the planning phase in order to identify the most effective evaluation methodology, and this may require flexibility in some aspects of the program deployment to avoid selection bias and other factors that may undermine the evaluation process. This is a crucial component of the Program which will advance the collective understanding of the dynamics of poverty in Jordan and the strengths and weaknesses of “last mile” intervention programs in the Jordanian context, providing valuable feedback to policy and program decisions in the future. The project will finance the hardware and software for the data collection and management.  Support to Grievance Redress System and Validation/Verification Process at ISTD: To ensure that the outreach process is enhancing the effectiveness of the compensation program, the relevant data from the household will be made available to ISTD as soon as possible to ensure the timely validation of the eligible households. As part of the referral and case management, it will be the responsibility of the lead NGO to ensure that these eligible households are registered at the unified registry and benefits are delivered to these households. The outreach workers will also serve as a critical element in the GRS by serving as mediators between ISTD and households to resolve any complaints and reduce the impact of potential conflict. The outreach workers will be physically present at the ISTD during the distribution period.  Outreach Management and Evaluation: This will include management of the program, including day to day running costs, development of the supervisory structure, and communication and media, including a community engagement strategy. It will be responsible for coordinating M&E activities while technical design of the M&E will be developed by the academic institution contracted for designing/planning. M&E will be embedded in the design of all activities. Since this is a pilot activity, baseline data will be collected and evaluation parameters will be designed to gather the data over the project period to conduct the evaluation. The project will finance the project management costs for the lead NGO, including team salaries, office equipment and furniture, rental for vehicles, and day to day running costs. 36 Annex 3: Implementation Arrangements JORDAN: Support to Implementation of National Unified Registry and Outreach Program for Targeting Social Assistance Component 1 will be implemented by MOF as follows: A. Creating a NUR Unit at MOF for building and managing the NUR for Targeting. 1. This NUR Unit will be established in the MOF to implement Component 1.. The NUR Unit in the MOF will play a critical role in assembling the database with existing information from all formal sector agencies (public and private), and oversee the entire Unified Database System with support from the ISTD who will be responsible for building, updating and maintaining the database of the informal private sector and others. The main functions of the NUR Unit in the MOF are as follows: a) Develop and assemble the Unified Database of households, with the highest quality standards and following objective and clear criteria for welfare estimations, data collection arrangements and processing b) Make all necessary arrangements to preserve the integrity and security of such data (including building remote recovery center of facility) to be able to serve users as needed c) Make all necessary institutional and organizational arrangements to be able to provide efficient and adequate services to users d) Procure, install and staff all the required information technology infrastructure supporting the Unified Database, and the feedback reporting from data users e) Develop and put in place an efficient and responsive Grievance Redress System (GRS), so that program users feel confident of the accuracy and completeness of the database f) Develop and put in place a good communication strategy, so that program users can better explain to beneficiaries and applicants the value and benefits of the NUR g) Provide data as requested and agreed with users in a timely manner h) Provide technical assistance, as needed, to facilitate use of database i) Develop and put in place a series of performance monitoring indicators to monitor progress in building and use of the database j) Provide all needed technical assistance and financial support to the ISTD for the assembly, security and maintenance of the database of the informal private sector and others. k) Contract independent firms to carry out spot checks and evaluation studies 2. In addition to carrying out its core technical functions as described above, NUR will also provide fiduciary management support through recruiting procurement and financial officers and through establishing a Special Tender Committee. 37 3. The NUR unit composition will be as follows: The NUR unit in the MOF will consist of eight to ten highly qualified staff, including Unit Director, four to six Management Information System (MIS) staff (systems engineers or computer science, programmers, network administrator), two econometrics or statistic staff, two survey specialist, one monitoring and evaluation staff, and two support staff. It will provide resources to ISTD to collect data including field survey work/validation of applications. Also, the ISTD will need to conduct additional surveys to address complaints and grievances. B. Define data formats for reporting data by participating agencies: The Government will issue an administrative order to mandate agencies (central and local government and others) to submit specified data to the NUR Unit. This will include specified format, variables, periodicity of submit, security protection, confidentiality, etc. The unification of databases under the NUR Unit will save money and increase the accuracy of payroll data (resulting in fewer complaints), and will take advantage of economies of scale in processing, and software development. C. Support capacity building of the MOF/ISTD team through inter alia specialized training, south-south learning events to see first-hand such well-functioning and effective registries in other countries (Indonesia, Turkey, Georgia, etc.). Component 2 will be implemented by MOPIC as follows: a. Overall Management and Coordination: An IOWP unit will be established at the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MOPIC) to coordinate activities of all implementing partners and provide fiduciary management support. It will be supported by a fiduciary management team including procurement and financial officers headed by the project manager. b. Implementation of Sub-component 2 (a)—Outreach Design, Planning and Training: MOPIC will select a firm (i.e., an educational/academic institution) on a competitive basis with adequate experience in designing and rolling out the social outreach models. Under the supervision of MOPIC, the selected firm will be responsible for providing strategic, advisory and technical support on the design, management, and deployment of the Program, with particular emphasis on the assessments leading up to and the development of curriculum, training and supervisory models, providing the training to the supervisors and outreach workers, design of service delivery and referral systems, and the evaluations thereafter. c. Implementation of Sub-component 2 (b)--Outreach Deployment and Management. MOPIC will select a local lead NGO with extensive contextual knowledge, network of outreach centers and experience in implementing programs addressing a range of challenges related to poverty in Jordan. This NGO will be recruited to serve as the primary implementation partner on the ground. The lead NGO will be responsible for recruiting the supervisors and outreach workers and will implement the outreach worker deployment as per the design of the outreach program. 38 4. The proposed implementation arrangements involve two key agencies, MoF and MoPIC. Component (1), related to “creating a National Unified Registry (NUR), will be implemented by MOF while Component (2), related to “Piloting Integrated Outreach Worker Program” (IOWP), will be implemented by MOPIC. For implementing those two components, a Technical Unit will be established at MOF and an IOWP Unit will be established at MOPIC. The Sub-Component (b) of Component 2 will involve hiring of a leading local NGO and an Educational/Academic institution. MOPIC has wide experience with the World Bank financial management and disbursement guidelines gained from the implementation of past and ongoing World Bank- financed projects. On the other hand, MOF has limited experience with implementing of World Bank-financed projects. Qualified accountants, identified from the Finance Department of each ministry, will be appointed as part of NUR Unit/MOF and IOWP Unit/MOPIC to handle the financial management and disbursement functions. Adequate training by the Bank will be provided to Accountants to ensure that they understand and can apply World Bank Policies and Procedures. The two accountants at both ministries (MOPIC and MOF) are and will remain public sector employees. 5. Project Financial Management Risk. The overall FM risk is “Substantial”. With mitigation measures in place, the project will have acceptable project financial management arrangements; its financial management risk rating will be “Moderate”. The FM risk is assessed as “Substantial” mainly due to: i) limited knowledge of MOF staff on World Bank financial management and disbursement guidelines, ii) possible coordination limitation between MOF and MOPIC that could cause delays in financial reporting; iii) Multiple executing entities; and iv) accounting systems at MOF and MOPIC are not capable of generating the quarterly IFRs as per the World Bank guidelines. 6. The following measures are to be taken to mitigate FM-related risks: i. Two Designated Accounts (DAs) will be opened, one for MOF and one for MOPIC, at the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ); ii. Payments to the local NGO and the educational/academic institution will be based on specific and clear contractual deliverables and payment terms stipulated in the contracts; iii. The NUR Unit/MOF will submit within sufficient time (30 days after the end of quarter) the IFRs to IOWP Unit/MOPIC for consolidation before submission to the Bank. iv. Qualified Accountants will be appointed at NUR Unit/MOF and IOWP Unit/MOPIC who will keep close coordination; v. Adequate training will be provided by the World Bank to accountants on World Bank FM and disbursement guidelines; vi. An independent external auditor, acceptable to the World Bank, will be hired to audit the project’s consolidated annual financial statements in accordance with terms of reference (TOR) acceptable to the World Bank. The auditor will also assess the effectiveness of internal controls within the project. vii. Spread sheets will be used to generate the quarterly IFRs 7. Budgeting and Funds Flow. A project budget and periodical disbursement plan, based on the procurement plan and implementation schedule, will be developed IOWP Unit/MOPIC in 39 consultation with NUR Unit/MOF. This Grant, in line with all World Bank-managed Grants, will not be included in the Government of Jordan national budget. Two Designated Accounts (DAs) will be opened, one for MOF and one for MOPIC, at the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ). These accounts will be managed separately by each Ministry. Deposits into and payments from the DAs will be made in accordance with the disbursement letter. IOWP Unit/MOPIC and NUR Unit/MOF MOPIC will prepare withdrawal applications with the related supporting documents, signed by the designated signatories from each Ministry. 8. The bulk of the project’s expenditures relate to consultancy services, mainly to the local NGO and the educational/academic institution that will be recruited and goods for the unified registry system. Payments to these contracts will be in accordance with each contract’s specified deliverables and terms of payment. 9. Accounting and Reporting. Project will follow the cash basis of accounting where resources and uses of funds are recorded when cash is received or when payments are made. The project will not use the recently rolled out Government Financial Management Information System (GFMIS) because it is not included in the Jordan National Budget; in line with all World Bank-managed Grants in Jordan. Therefore, financial transactions will be recorded by IOWP Unit/MOPIC using its in house “Grant System”, while MOF will use manual recording. The project will be required to generate quarterly Interim un-audited financial reports (IFRs) in compliance with International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS). The reports will consist of Statement of Cash Receipts and Payments by category” and accounting policies and explanatory notes, including a footnote disclosure on schedules: (i) “the list of all signed Contracts per category” showing Contract amounts committed, paid, and unpaid under each contract, (ii) Reconciliation Statement for the balance of the Designated Account and the sub- account in JOD, and (iii) a list of assets (goods and equipment). The NUR Unit/MOF will submit within 30 days quarterly IFRs to IOWP Unit/MOPIC for consolidation. The IOWP Unit/MOPIC will prepare consolidated IFRs and will be submitted to the Bank by no later than 45 days after the end of each quarter. 10. Internal Controls. Project’s expenditure cycle will follow the controls specified in the National Financial System of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which include: (i) technical approval of department involved; (ii) finance staff checking and approval; (iii) resident Internal Auditors; and (iv) Ministry of Finance’s Financial Controller who validates the accuracy of the payment and its compliance with the applicable laws in Jordan and with the Bank procurement and FM procedures as well as the Grant terms and conditions. Although the project will follow the government-applied controls set in the local laws, there will be supplementary controls in place for monitoring project activities, including; the verification and approval of the NUR Unit/MOF and IOWP Unit/MOPIC (financial and technical). Project’s financial controls are documented in the Project Operational Manual (OM).The OM will include a FM chapter, which will describe the roles and responsibilities of the NUR Unit/MOF and IOWP Unit/MOPIC in relation to FM and disbursement and flow of funds, information and documentation. 11. External Audit. An external independent auditor acceptable to the Bank, financed by the Grant, will be hired to audit project financial statements in accordance with international standards of auditing. The audit report and management letter will be submitted by IOWP 40 Unit/MOPIC to the Bank within six months after the end of the audit period. IOWP Unit/MOPIC will be responsible for preparing the Terms of Reference for the auditor and submitting them to the Bank for clearance. The auditor will be requested also to provide an opinion on the project’s effectiveness of internal control system. The final payment for the auditor after the Closing Date will be transferred from the Grant account to an escrow account maintained by MOPIC. According to the World Bank Policy on Access to Information issued on July 1, 2010, the audit report with audited financial statements of the project will be made available to the public. 12. Training and Implementation Support. The Bank will provide training to the NUR Unit/MOF and IOWP Unit/MOPIC on Bank FM and disbursement guidelines and procedures, and will provide FM implementation support during project supervision. Initially, the Project Financial Management Specialist will provide close support to the two units during the first phases of implementation and thereafter will conduct annually two supervision missions for the Project in addition to follow up visits. Disbursements 13. Designated Account (DA). To ensure that funds are readily available for project implementation, two DAs will be opened, one for MOF (DA-A) and one for MOPIC (DA-B), at the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ). These accounts will be managed separately by each Ministry. Authorized signatories, names and corresponding specimens of their signatures would be submitted to the Bank prior to the receipt of the first Withdrawal Application. Designated Account Implementing Entity Ceiling of Designated Category of Financing Account "A" MOF US$ 300,000 Category 1 "B" MOPIC US$ 700,000 Category 2 14. The proceeds of the Grant will be disbursed in accordance with the Bank's disbursements guidelines as will be outlined in the Disbursement Letter and in accordance with the Bank Disbursement Guidelines for Projects. Transaction-based disbursement will be used under this project. Accordingly, requests for payments from the Grant will be initiated through the use of withdrawal applications (WAs) either for direct payments, reimbursements, and replenishments to the DA. All WAs will include appropriate supporting documentation including detailed Statement of Expenditures (SoEs) for reimbursements and replenishments to the DA. The category of Eligible Expenditures that may be financed out of the proceeds of the Grant and the percentage of expenditures to be financed for Eligible Expenditures are indicated in Schedule 2, Section IV, 2 of the Grant Agreement. Necessary supporting documents will be sent to the Bank in connection with contracts that are above the prior review threshold as per the developed procurement plan. The documentation supporting expenditures will be retained at the two ministries and will be readily accessible for review by the external auditors and Bank supervision missions. All disbursements will be subject to the conditions of the Grant Agreement and disbursement procedures as will be defined in the Disbursement Letter. 15. E-Disbursement. The World Bank has introduced e-disbursement for all projects in Jordan. Under e-Disbursement, all transactions will be conducted and associated supporting 41 documents and IFRs scanned and transmitted online through the World Bank’s Client connection system. The use of e-Disbursement functionality will streamline online payment processing to (i) avoid common mistakes in filling out WAs; (ii) reduce the time and cost of sending WAs to the Bank; and (iii) expedite the Bank processing of disbursement requests. 16. Interim Unaudited Financial Reports and Annual Financial Statements will be used as a financial reporting mechanism and not for disbursement purposes. 17. The minimum application size for direct payment and reimbursement will be the equivalent of 20% of the Advance ceiling amount. The Bank will honor eligible expenditures completed, services rendered and delivered by the Project closing date. A four months' grace period will be granted to allow for the payment of any eligible expenditure incurred before the Credit Closing Date. 18. Statement of expenditures (SOE): During implementation, necessary supporting documents will be sent to the Bank in connection with contract that are above the prior review threshold, except for expenditures under Contracts with an estimated value of: (a) US$100,000 or less for goods; (b) US$100,000 or less for Consulting Firms; (c) US$50,000 or less for Individual Consultants, training and workshops, audit and operating costs which will be claimed on the basis of SOEs. The documentation supporting expenditures will be retained at the respective Project Implementation Unit and will be readily accessible for review by the external auditors and periods Bank supervision missions. 19. The following and specifies the categories of Eligible Expenditures that may be financed out of the proceeds of the Grant and the percentage of expenditures to be financed for Eligible Expenditures: Category Amount of the Percentage of Expenditures Grant Allocated to be Financed (inclusive of (expressed in taxes) USD) Goods, non-consulting services, 100% consultants’ services, Incremental 2,550,000 Operating Costs and Training under Part A of the Project Goods, non-consulting services, consultants’ 6,950,000 100% services, Incremental Operating Costs and Training under Part B of the Project TOTAL AMOUNT 9,500,000 “Incremental Operating Costs” means Project related incremental costs incurred by the “NUR Unit/MOF” and “IOWP Unit/MOPIC” on account of communication, translation and interpretation, printing, procurement -related advertising, office supplies, banking charges, and local transportation, excluding salaries of the Recipient's civil servants, and other miscellaneous costs directly associated with Project implementation subject to prior approval by the World Bank. 42 C. PROCUREMENT Procurement Capacity Assessment: 20. Jordan’s public procurement system is a highly centralized, well defined system governed by a series of regulations issued by the Council of Ministers and managed by the Government Tenders Directorate (GTD) of the Ministry of Public Works and Housing (MPWH) for civil works and consultants’ services and by the General Supplies Department (GSD) of the Ministry of Finance (MOF) for supplies, equipment and furniture. The system operates in a transparent environment where both the private sector and public officials are familiar with and comply with the requirements of the regulations. Award of the majority of public contracts is based on competition with contract award generally being made on the basis of the lowest priced acceptable offer, but for consultants a weighting formula is used. The overall risk associated with corrupt practices affecting public procurement in Jordan is considered low by both private and public participants. As the demands on the Government have continued to increase, the centralized procurement system has become overburdened, lacking specialized expertise for a growing range of procurement requirements. As a result, a number of exceptions have been made to create special tender committees (STC) within ministries or autonomous authorities to handle procurement. These special committees have been given unlimited authority to manage the procurement process of goods, works and consultants for the programs/projects covered by the authority. Regulations also establish a series of thresholds which determine what level of government authority exists for procurement of civil works, goods and services. Within each threshold level, the process is under the responsibility of committees. Committees do not make final decisions but submit their recommendations to higher level policy officials for ratification. STC is not restricted to any threshold and are used to expedite implementation of special projects. 21. MoPIC past experience: MoPIC has acquired experience in channeling foreign international aid and implementing donor-funded projects. MoPIC has experience in working with NGOs and CBOs (Community Based Organizations) through government or donors’ funded projects; in particular, it has been implementing the “Productivity Enhancement Project” that is aiming to develop local communities and combating poverty. MoPIC procurement processing is mainly focused on purchase of goods and selection of consultancy services. MoPIC has limited knowledge of World Bank procurement guidelines and procedures and acceptable capacity to support the procurement function of the project. To expedite implementation and avoid delays in processing procurement through the central tender bodies for either goods or works, a Special Tendering Committees (STC) shall be appointed. 22. MoF past experience: MoF has fair experience in international project preparation and implementation. The Ministry has been implementing the General Finance Management Information System (GFMIS) project, funded by USAID and has been exposed to projects financed by UNDP and GIZ. The Ministry processes mainly purchase of goods (office supply and equipment, furniture, etc.). MoF has no previous experience in preparing or managing World Bank-funded projects and has not been exposed to Bank procurement guidelines and procedures. The Ministry has limited procurement capacity (staff) to support the project procurement 43 function. As for MOPIC, a Special Tendering Committees (STC) shall be needed to expedite procurement processing. 23. Audit: Internal auditing at both Ministries is observed while the external auditing is conducted by the governmental Audit. No external independent auditing is exercised. 24. Current Procurement Staff: At both ministries “Supplies and Purchasing” division is housed under the “Financial and Administration” department. Three procurement committees handle “Purchasing”, “Competitive tendering” and “Commissioning/ reception”. At MOPIC, the overall procurement staff is composed of (23) members, and the financial department comprises (19) staff. At MoF the overall staff is of (11) members. Differently from MOPIC, MoF does not have a financial department per-say and processes financial transactions through the Treasury Department (25 staff). 25. Procurement Planning: Both agencies do not rely on procurement planning. The budget allocated line items and availability of funds drive procurement processing. 26. Overall Project Procurement Risk assessment of the implementing agencies is considered Substantial. Proposed Procurement Arrangements: 27. Project Implementation Arrangements: The project will be implemented by two agencies. Both implementing agencies shall observe due diligence in processing transaction and will be responsible for (i) Processing procurement implementation, (ii) Monitoring and managing contracts, and (iii) Reporting to the Bank on fiduciary and technical aspects. (a) Ministry of Finance (MOF) for Component 1 (National Unified Registry- NUR) shall ensure the establishment of a NUR unit to implement component 1. (b) Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MOPIC) for Component 2 (Integrated Outreach Worker Program- IOWP), will be responsible for the overall coordination of IOWP, and will be in charge of selecting a competent consulting firm or an NGO under sub-component 2(a) and an educational/academic institution under sub-component 2(b). 28. In both agencies, establishment of a STC is foreseen for processing efficiently procurement activities. 29. Project guidelines: “Guidelines On Preventing and Combating Fraud and Corruption in Projects Financed by IBRD Loans and IDA Credits and Grants” dated October 15, 2006 and updated January 2011, World Bank “Guidelines: Procurement of Goods, Works and Non- consulting Services under IBRD Loans and IDA Credits and Grants by World Bank Borrowers” dated January 2011 and World Bank “Guidelines: Selection and Employment of Consultants under IBRD Loans and IDA Credits and Grants by World Bank Borrowers” dated January 2011, shall apply to the project. 44 30. Procurement methods for Goods, Works and non-consulting services: The (IAs) are expected to conduct (i) international competitive bidding (ICB) for which the Bank standard documents shall be used, (ii) national competitive bidding (NCB) for which the IAs shall use the Jordanian Standard Bidding Documents after integrating the provisions listed in the grant agreement, procurement schedule, (iii) community participation, (iv) shopping, and (v) direct contract, 31. Procurement methods for Selection of consultants: The (IAs) are expected to conduct (i) Quality and Cost Based Selections (QCBS), (ii) Least-Cost Selection (LCS), (iii) Selection Based on the Consultants’ Qualifications (CQS), (iv) Single Source Selection (SSS), and (v) Selection of Individual Consultants. 32. Particular procurement: Use of Nongovernmental Organizations a (NGO) and Educational/Academic Institutions under component 2. 57. Particular procurement: Use of Nongovernmental Organizations a (NGO) and Educational/Academic Institutions under component 2. MOPIC is envisaging appointing a lead NGO and an educational/academic institution for Component 2. In view of the nature of the activity, the selected NGO and educational/academic institution, should have extensive capacity in social work outreach, and past experience in designing the relevant training, respectively. The selection will be on a competitive basis, although following market research, the MOPIC may request single sourcing based on sufficient justification. In this case, the Bank will have to clear the submitted justification for using single source method as per the guidelines requirements (Selection of Consultants Guidelines Clause 3.9). Moreover, capacity assessments of the proposed NGO and educational/academic institution shall be carried out. MOPIC will have to be vigilant in drafting Terms of Reference (ToRs) and will insure including in the contract all requirements that those entities will be observing with respect to transparency. Managing and monitoring selected consultants, field workers, etc. shall be documented. A particular focus shall be given with respect to record keeping. It is advised that MOPIC shall use the lump sum contracts and will be issuing payments against delivered services. The project shall ensure avoiding any conflict of interest that these particular selections may create. 33. Staff: The procurement function shall be supported by both Ministries’ technical staff that will be enhanced by outsourced procurement officers. 34. Procurement plans: A single and simple procurement plan for the life of the project was developed to cover all project activities. Updates of the plan shall be reviewed by the Bank at least twice a year or as necessary. Concerning Component 2, simplified procurement plans, or any alternative, may be prepared by the selected entities (NGO and Educational Institution), on the basis of agreed list of eligible activities to be implemented. 35. Operation manuals: The procurement section in the manual shall specify the procurement processing and contract management. It shall also tackle the record-keeping requirements and the complaint mechanism expected arrangements. 36. External Audit Firm: A firm shall be appointed for reviewing the project transactions, and procurement processing. The firm shall also conduct physical inspection on a sampling basis. 45 37. Mitigation measures of identified risks: To mitigate the identified capacity assessment Substantial risks to Moderate the following measures are recommended: (i) ensuring proper coordination between the two agencies of the project, especially with respect to procurement planning; (ii) usage of procurement plan as a monitoring tool for processing timely activities and not only as reporting tool; (iii) preparing a procurement section in the Project Operation Manual (POM) to integrate procurement processing but also forms and standardized documents; (iv) systematizing record keeping, and initiating electronic archiving of procurement processing; (v) enhancing capacity for appropriate support (staff, training, tools) to properly prepare the project procurement by linking project objectives and procurement plan; (vi) agreeing on a training program (internal/ external) to be implemented over the life of the project that is both relevant and practical; (vii) establishing/improving and implementing complaint management system; (viii) reviewing causes for recurrent amendments and cost overruns, if any; and (ix) developing suitable corrections to planning, cost estimates, lack of proper designs, technical specifications, etc. 46 Annex 4: Operational Risk Assessment Framework (ORAF) JORDAN: Support to Implementation of National Unified Registry and Outreach Program for Targeting Social Assistance Project Stakeholder Risks Rating Moderate Description: Unsteady support to the reform process by some sector Risk Management: Careful consideration of political economy associated with the safety net ministries, because of political economy costs. reform, in particular subsidy reform. Well designed and timely implemented public information campaign is expected to be instrumental in this regard as well. Consensus building events involving various stakeholders, including beneficiaries are expected to contribute to the ownership of project supported activities. Due Date: end of 1st year of Status: Resp: Government Stage: Implementation implementation ongoing of NUR Implementing Agency Risks (including fiduciary) Capacity Rating: Substantial Description: MOF’s insufficient capacity to implement Bank project Risk Management: A team of specialists will be appointed to mitigate this risks and in addition may cause delays; (ii) Slippage in implementation, (ii) weak capacity in specific measures will be taken as follows: (i) usage of procurement plan as a monitoring tool for project procurement activities, (iii) insufficient quality of delivered processing timely activities and not only as reporting tool; (ii) enhancing capacity for appropriate services and purchased goods/works. procurement support (staff, training, tools) ; (iii) agreeing on a training program (internal/ external), (iv) reviewing causes for recurrent amendments and cost overruns, if any; and (v) developing suitable corrections to planning, cost estimates, lack of proper designs, technical specifications, etc. Due Date: within 6 months of Status: Resp: Government Stage: Implementation project ongoing effectiveness Governance Rating: Moderate Description: System to handle complaints and grievances is not up to Risk Management: One of the project activities is to establish an effective complaint handling date and grievances system at MOF so it will allow to very effectively manage this risk. Due Date: by end Status: Resp: Stage: Implementation of 1st year of NUR ongoing implementation Project Risks 47 Design Rating: Substantial Description: While the project design was proposed by the Government Risk Management: Monitoring and evaluation and continuous beneficiary rapid assessments are based on advice of global experts and drawing on lessons learnt from embedded into the project activities which will help to refine the approach as the project proceeds other countries who have successfully implemented the project with and mitigate any risk to the design for successful outcomes. similar design and with similar implementation dynamics, given the pilot nature of the project, the risk is substantial Due Date: end of 2nd and 3rd years Status: Resp: Govt/Bank Stage: Implementation of NUR ongoing implementation Social & Environmental Rating: Low Description : No particular risks related to Social and Environmental Risk Management: N/A aspects are foreseen Resp: N/A Stage: N/A Due Date : N/A Status: N/A Program & Donor Rating: Low Description: There are no donors involved in the project, thus the risk Risk Management. N/A is low of any disruption to the project. Resp: N/A Stage: N/A Due Date : N/A Status: N/A Delivery Monitoring & Sustainability Rating: Substantial Description: Fiscal sustainability of the cash transfer program in view Risk Management: While sustainability will depend to a large extent on the fiscal constraint, the of the overall fiscal challenges, and monitoring of cash transfer GOJ has shown a strong commitment to sustaining and improving this compensation program. The establishment of the unified registry will generate savings and the design by itself is meant to contribute to fiscal sustainability. The independent evaluation team will continue to verify whether the NUR will continue to provide assistance according to the welfare ranking and the eligibility criteria as follows: (a) through reconciliation of data provided by the outreach program/NGO database and MOF database; (b) eligibility review of beneficiaries through the MOF Internal Audit Department and eventually a third party such as an NGO or other agencies. In parallel, MOF/MOPIC will get M&E support for impact evaluation to assess the sustainability and effectiveness of the program. Due Date: by Status: Resp: Government/Bank Stage: Implementation project end ongoing Overall Implementation Risk Rating Substantial 48 Annex 5: Implementation Support Plan JORDAN: Support to Implementation of National Unified Registry and Outreach Program for Targeting Social Assistance Strategy and Approach for Implementation Support The World Bank’s implementation support to the project will comprise of technical, fiduciary and evaluation assistance as follows: 1. Policy guidance: The Bank’s policy guidance and advice has been an integral part of the Bank support to the operation. The Bank will seek advice internally from the networks and regions and global experts outside of the Bank. This role will be further enhanced at the design and implementation stages to ensure that the project achieves its intended objectives while achieving positive social and economic outcomes for Jordanian citizens. 2. Technical assistance on the design and planning: The Bank technical experts will coordinate closely with the implementing agencies on the design and execution of the activities. For component 1, the Bank technical experts will provide technical inputs and quality review to the design of the questionnaire/survey, helping to define the welfare ranking or assessment methodology, reviewing and providing inputs to the design and consolidation of the databases, reviewing the reporting mechanisms among the sector ministries and other government agencies, and helping to set up the grievance system. While the Bank experts have been involved since the identification of the activity, their assistance is also likely to grow to ensure that the design and implementation of the database is rolled out with minimal errors. For component 2, the Bank team will provide technical assistance for: (i) developing the Terms of Reference for the educational institution and the lead NGO who will be recruited to design, plan and deploy the outreach worker program, (ii) providing quality review assistance to the key deliverables pertaining to the design and planning of the program before the program is rolled out including the plan for setting up the referral system, train-the-trainer model, selection criteria for households, supervisors and outreach workers, and terms of reference for supervisors and outreach workers who will form the core part of the program; and (iii) providing technical inputs to the operational manual for the deployment and related operational aspects of the outreach program. 3. Fiduciary management support: The World Bank team will include fiduciary management staff to provide routine supervision of FM and procurement activities. This will include review and clearance of the TORs of local procurement and financial management officers, the operations manual, interim financial reports, withdrawal requests, and other procurement actions. The Bank fiduciary staff will also provide guidance to the local procurement and FM officers on procurement issues, preparation of the first IFRs, compliance with the Bank guidelines and other issues as they arise during implementation. 4. Monitoring and impact evaluation support: In addition to the M&E integrated into the project, the Bank will provide day to day supervision and expertise on overall design of 49 the M&E system, the data collection strategies including the design of the data collection system for day to day monitoring and baseline data for impact evaluation, TORs for the beneficiary rapid assessments, quality of the project monitoring reports that will be prepared by the implementing agencies, and most importantly, provide technical expertise to guide the design of the evaluation which will guide the nature and scope of baseline data to be collected. Implementation Support Plan Time Focus Skills Needed Monitor design of the beneficiary questionnaire / survey - TTL for the NUR under component 1 - Economist Monitoring design/implementation of NUR (building of - TTL informal workers’ database, consolidation of NPTP - Economist (application received, distribution of benefits, etc) - TTL - Procurement Year 1 Monitoring the recruitment of the implementing agencies Specialist for component 2 - Social Protection Specialist - TTL Monitoring the design and planning of the outreach - Social Protection program under sub-component 2 (a) Specialist Financial management - FM specialist FM, disbursement and report - FM specialist - Procurement Procurement review specialist Economist, TTL, Social Development, Year 2 - 5 Technical inputs Economist, Operations Officer Social monitoring Social specialist Monitoring and Evaluation TTL, M&E Project implementation progress TTL, Operations Officer 50