The World Bank RESTRUCTURING ISDS Liberia Land Administration Project (P162893) Integrated Safeguards Data Sheet Restructuring Stage Restructuring Stage | Date ISDS Prepared/Updated: | Report No: ISDSR27194 Regional Vice President: Hafez M. H. Ghanem Country Director: Pierre Frank Laporte Regional Director: Simeon Kacou Ehui Practice Manager/Manager: Jorge A. Munoz Task Team Leader(s): Linus Benedikt Pott The World Bank RESTRUCTURING ISDS Liberia Land Administration Project (P162893) . I. BASIC INFORMATION 1. BASIC PROJECT DATA Project ID Project Name P162893 Liberia Land Administration Project Task Team Leader(s) Country Linus Benedikt Pott Liberia Approval Date Environmental Category 28-Sep-2017 Partial Assessment (B) Managing Unit Is this a Repeater project? SURLN PROJECT FINANCING DATA (US$, Millions) SUMMARY -NewFin1 Total Project Cost 7.00 Total Financing 7.00 Financing Gap 0.00 DETAILS -NewFinEnh1 World Bank Group Financing International Development Association (IDA) 7.00 IDA Grant 7.00 2. PROJECT INFORMATION PROG_INF O Current Program Development Objective The Project Development Objective is to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Liberia Land Authority and establish a land administration system. . The World Bank RESTRUCTURING ISDS Liberia Land Administration Project (P162893) 3. PROJECT DESCRIPTION The Liberia Land Administration Project became effective in March 2018. The Government of Liberia requested a project restructuring in August 2019, which focuses on Component 2 as outlined below. The Project consists of four components. Component 1 (Support to the Liberia Land Authority) focuses on support to the operationalization of the LLA and its core responsibilities, including but not limited to: land laws/regulations and administrative procedures; business systems, business plans for financial sustainability; capacity building; communication and awareness raising; and acquisition of office equipment, furniture, supplies and vehicles necessary for conducting the work of the Project. The initially approved Component 2 (Support for inventory and analysis of tribal land certificates) was supposed to finance inventories of tribal certificates in several counties. However, due to the passage of the Land Rights Act (LRA) in October 2018 the legal environment changed and LLA requested to replace the component with the piloting of registration of customary land. Therefore, the content of the component will be adjusted, and the title of Component 2 will be changed to “Piloting of Registration of Customary Land�. The new activities will focus on the piloting of the implementation of steps outlined in LRA Articles 34 (Identification of Community); 35 (Organization of Community); 36 (Governance and Management); 37 (Demarcation of Customary Land); 46 (Deeded Private Land within a Customary Land); 47 (Tribal Certificates); and 48 (Concessions Area within a Customary Land) as well as related LRA articles and related legislation Component 3 (Development of a land administration system) focuses on assessments and pilots with regard to valuation of land; land use planning; and management of government and public land; support for county level land offices; and establishment of a geodetic network. Component 4 (Project Coordination, Monitoring and Evaluation) finances the Project Implementation Unit (PIU). This component supports operational costs required for project implementation. The component is financing a social assessment and will finance a baseline study for awareness of the general public on land related issues and the LLA. the mid-term and end-of-project evaluations. . 4. PROJECT LOCATION AND SALIENT PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS RELEVANT TO THE SAFEGUARD ANALYSIS (IF KNOWN) Key activities of the project will be implemented across the country. The field activities include the renovation of five county offices for the LLA and piloting of registration of customary land activities. The location of these activities are yet to be determined. When the sites for the county office renovations are determined, site-specific ESMPs will be prepared, consulted upon and disclosed to all relevant stakeholders. 5. ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL SAFEGUARDS SPECIALISTS ON THE TEAM Sekou Abou Kamara, Environmental Specialist The World Bank RESTRUCTURING ISDS Liberia Land Administration Project (P162893) Akhilesh Ranjan, Social Specialist Sarah Antwi Boasiako, Social Specialist SAFEGUARD_TABLE 6. SAFEGUARD POLICIES TRIGGERED Safeguard Policies Triggered Explanation The Project will include office renovations and support for policy, legislation/regulations for land administration. The office renovation works may have potential impacts but they are manageable. The legislation/regulatory activities under the project are intended to support the operationalization of the 2018 Land Rights Act. Specific activities to be undertaken will include the development and/or finalization of i) Regulations on the conduct of Confirmatory Surveys to identify, inventory, map, probate and register the Customary Land claims of communities, ii) Guidelines on the process for community to set aside as Public Land a maximum of 10% of Environmental Assessment (OP) (BP 4.01) Yes Customary Land in each Community, iii) Guidelines or Best Practices for community negotiations over concessions, iv) Guidelines for the inventory of Government Land and harmonization (where possible) of its boundaries , and v) National Zoning policy. Overall, with proper stakeholder consultations and community involvement, these activities are expected to have positive impacts on forest health and the rights of people depending on forest resources. Given that the renovation works are not defined at this stage, the LLA has prepared an ESMF, while activity- and site-specific Environmental and Social Action Plans or ESMPs will be prepared at the time of implementation when these activities are defined. Performance Standards for Private Sector No Activities OP/BP 4.03 The project activities are not expected to have Natural Habitats (OP) (BP 4.04) No adverse impacts on critical or other natural habitats. OP.4.36 has been triggered because Component 2 will focus on implementation of the Land Rights Act, specifically Article 34 of the Land Rights Act. Forests (OP) (BP 4.36) Yes The project will support the development and/or finalization of i) Regulations on the conduct of Confirmatory Surveys to identify, inventory, map, probate and register the Customary Land claims of The World Bank RESTRUCTURING ISDS Liberia Land Administration Project (P162893) communities, ii) Guidelines on the process for community to set aside as Public Land a maximum of 10% of Customary Land in each Community, iii) Guidelines or Best Practices for community negotiations over concessions, iv) Guidelines for the inventory of Government Land and harmonization (where possible) of its boundaries , and v) National Zoning policy. Implementation of the Land Rights Act is expected to positively affect the rights and welfare of communities as the Act provides for communities ownership and management of their customary lands including forest resources.. No standalone safeguards instrument is required at this stage to address the triggering of this OP apart from the ESMF that has been developed. The project activities will not promote or increase the use of pesticide. The project activities will not Pest Management (OP 4.09) No involve procurement, transportation or storage of pesticides or pesticide application equipment. The project activities will not affect physical cultural Physical Cultural Resources (OP) (BP 4.11) No resources. This is not applicable to the project and Liberia at Indigenous Peoples (OP) (BP 4.10) No large. The project activities will not require land acquisition and the activities are not likely to induce Involuntary Resettlement (OP) (BP 4.12) No physical or economic displacement. Thus, the policy is not triggered. Project activities do not involve construction of new Safety of Dams (OP) (BP 4.37) No dam or renovation of existing dams. The project will not rely on any existing dams. Projects on International Waterways (OP) The project does not affect international No (BP 7.50) waterways. Projects in Disputed Areas (OP) (BP 7.60) No None of the project activities is in disputed areas. KEY_POLICY_TABLE II. KEY SAFEGUARD POLICY ISSUES AND THEIR MANAGEMENT A. SUMMARY OF KEY SAFEGUARD ISSUES 1. Describe any safeguard issues and impacts associated with the Restructured project. Identify and describe any potential large scale, significant and/or irreversible impacts. Based on the restructuring, some environmental and social risk and impacts are anticipated. The Project will include office renovations and support for policy, legislation/regulations for land administration.The office renovation works may have potential impacts but they are manageable. The legislation/regulatory activities The World Bank RESTRUCTURING ISDS Liberia Land Administration Project (P162893) under the project are intended to support the operationalization of the 2018 Land Rights Act, specifically Article 34. The overall effect of implementing the Land Rights Acts is expected to be positive. The Act strengthens communities ownership and management of communal lands including forests. There are no large scale, significant, and irreversible impacts associated with the proposed project. On social risk, physical and economic displacement are not anticipated, however the proposed piloting of systematic registration of customary lands may present situations where demarcated or allocated lands can be contested by multiple parties given that customary land boundaries are porous. The pilot activities have the objective to resolve such disputes as part of the systematic registration pilot and prevent future disputes. Therefore, on-site dispute resolution will be an integral part of the pilot design, which will be laid out in a field implementation manual and respective capacities of field staff will be built. These activities will be based on experiences from Civil Society Organizations and other actors involved in similar pilot activities. Any dispute encountered during the implementation and resolution thereof will be duly documented. A key concern expressed by Civil Society Organizations is the Land Rights Act provision of validating and converting existing tribal certificates to private land deeds. Tribal certificates have been used since the 1950s by communities and community members to secure their land rights, but they have also been misused by local elites to extract customary land for private gains without communities’ consent. Hence, the validation and conversion of existing tribal certificates to private deeds needs to be handled with utmost caution to avoid legitimizing false claims. Hence, consultation with communities is fundamental to mitigate associated risks. The borrower will prepare transparent guidelines for both processes of validation and conversion and identify adequate safeguards measures to ensure that all land rights are protected. Another key concern is the provision of the Land Rights Act that foresees that communities should identify up to 10% of their land as public land. The provision allows for communities not to allocate any land as public land and they need to be thoroughly informed about this option as well as the consequences (positive and negative) of defining parts of their land as public land. All activities in this regard need to be voluntary and based on community consensus. No land shall be identified as public land when community members or other legitimate land rights holders claim such land. All steps related to these specific provisions to the Land Rights Act will need to be clearly described by the LLA and independently observed by Civil Society Organizations to mitigate risks. In responding to these risks, LLA has commenced a Social Assessment Study to clarify the potential social impacts of the project activities. The results of this study will inform the design of the project activities, the field implementation manual, revision of the ESMF, and implementation of community and stakeholder consultations plans throughout the project life as well as revision of the GRM. 2. Describe any potential indirect and/or long term impacts due to anticipated future activities in the project area. The Project is expected to raise considerable awareness on land policy reforms which seeks to provide a clear tenure regime for the recognition of customary practices, incorporation of traditional resource management rules and arrangements, and for the legal protection of community land rights. Further, the Project might finance some small building renovations of existing offices for the LLA. As such, it is expected to have some environmental and social impacts associated with its implementation. These impacts are expected to be minimal and manageable. Long term impacts are not expected in this respect. The World Bank RESTRUCTURING ISDS Liberia Land Administration Project (P162893) 3. Describe any potential alternatives (if relevant) considered to help avoid or minimize adverse impacts. As the newly proposed activities are aligned to the new legal framework with regard to customary land, the only alternative would be to not engage on the Land Rights Act provisions with regard to customary land tenure. This would avoid any potential adverse impacts. However, the neglect of customary land claims over the course of Liberia’s history has played a significant role in Liberia’s civil wars and continues to fuel new conflicts. Hence, the benefits of securing customary tenure outweigh the associated risks. 4. Describe measures taken by the borrower to address safeguard policy issues. Provide an assessment of borrower capacity to plan and implement the measures described. The LLA prepared an ESMF during preparation, but further updates are needed based on the revised project scope and activities. Specifically, LLA will prepare a Stakeholder Engagement Plan (SEP) as part of the revised ESMF to ensure that all beneficiary groups (incl. women, youth, vulnerable groups, etc.) are adequately informed and consulted. Further, the SEP will specify the role of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), who could play the role of an independent observatory during the pilot implementation. CSOs have already piloted several aspects of the registration of customary land rights (i.e. Community Self-Identification; establishment of Community Land Development and Management Committees; and boundary harmonization) and are well placed to observe activities and ensure they are in line with internationally agreed upon principles such as transparency, gender-inclusiveness, participatory approaches, etc. in line with the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests (VGGT). In addition to the ESMF the borrower will prepare a field implementation manual. The manual will define the processes to conduct the different steps that lead, per the Land Rights Act, to the registration of customary land. The manual will clearly define the processes for awareness raising, community self-identification, establishment of Community Land Development and Management Committees, approval of community by-laws, boundary harmonization, validation and conversion of tribal certificates, demarcation and registration of customary land, identification of public land in a community, identification of other land claims found within a community as validated by community members, dispute resolution, public display of identified land claims, etc. All steps will follow the principles of transparency, gender-inclusiveness, and participation as outlined in the VGGT. The Bank will review the manual and provide No Objection once all processes have been included in line with the outlined principles to the satisfaction of the Bank. The borrower has already commenced preliminary engagement with community stakeholders through a Social Assessment study. The principal objective of the Social Assessessment is to provide understanding of the current stakeholders and the legal, institutional and social context in which project activities will be implemented. The Social Assessment study will provide information on the enabling and constraining environment of the project and identify ways to overcome constraints that would limit project impacts particularly on issues related to customary land management, land conflict prevention and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), gender and youth. The Social Assessment findings will inform the review of the ESMF and the field implementation manual. The LLA has little experience in implementing World Bank-financed projects and besides the establishment of a central Grievance Redress Mechanism, the LLA has no experience in implementing safeguards instruments that will be developed for this project. Due to the limited social risks under the initial project design, LLA has so far only appointed one of LLA’s staff as the Project’s Social Safeguards Specialist but the restructuring will require that LLA assigns one of its qualified staff members as a full-time Social Safeguards Specialist to the PIU or hire a qualified Social Safeguards Specialist. It is also recommended that LLA strengthens the safeguards and gender capacity of the current The World Bank RESTRUCTURING ISDS Liberia Land Administration Project (P162893) Social Safeguards Specialist to ensure effective implementation of safeguards instruments that will be developed and effective implementation of the GRM. 5. Identify the key stakeholders and describe the mechanism for consultation and disclosure on safeguard policies, with an emphasis on potentially affected people. The direct beneficiary of the Project will be the Government, specifically the LLA. Capacity building activities, the development of business plans, and provision of equipment will benefit the LLA staff to execute their duties. The piloting of systematic registration of customary land will benefit customary land rights holders, including women and youth, and help clarify existing porous land boundaries and improve land administration at both national and local level. The project activities may help to avoid or minimize future land related disputes as communities get increasingly aware about land administration policies and governance. Communities in rural areas, including women and vulnerable groups (e.g. youths and elderly), and urban communities will benefit from awareness raising campaigns focusing on land rights. During the formulation of the draft of the ESMF in 2014, the following key stakeholders were consulted through workshops, key informant interviews and focus-group discussions: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials, various ministries, departments and agencies of Government (i.e. Ministry of Lands, Mines and Energy, Center for National Documents and Records Agency (CNDRA), regional and district officials in various agencies responsible for land administration and management); and selected beneficiary groups (male and female) at the county and sub- county levels. As part of the social assessment, key stakeholder have been consulted in 2019 through workshops, key informant interviews and focus-group discussions and they include: LLA officials, local authorities, various government ministries, departments and agencies , regional and district officials in various agencies responsible for land administration and management); traditional authorities, and selected beneficiary groups (male and female) at the county and sub-county levels. In 2017 and prior to the passage of the Liberia Land Rights Act, the LLA conducted additional consultations with the CSO Working Group on Land Rights Reform, legal professionals, and as well as traditional leaders about the new role of the LLA and the proposed Liberia Land Rights Act. Decentralized Government officials and women’s groups participated in consultations as well. The feedback received about the project from the consultations was positive and there is the high expectation across the counties about the long-term benefits and impacts of the project with regards to the implementation of the LRA Articles. DISCLOSURE_TABLE B. DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS ENV_TABLE Environmental Assessment/Audit/Management Plan/Other Date of receipt by the Bank Date of submission for disclosure 26-Jun-2017 27-Jun-2017 For Category ‘A’ projects, date of distributing the Executive Summary of the EA to the Executive Directors The World Bank RESTRUCTURING ISDS Liberia Land Administration Project (P162893) “In country� Disclosure Country Date of Disclosure Liberia 23-Jun-2017 Comments The original ESMF has been disclosed by the LLA. The ESMF will be updated and the new version will be publicly disclosed by LLA. COMPLIANCE_TABLE C. COMPLIANCE MONITORING INDICATORS AT THE CORPORATE LEVEL EA_TABLE OP/BP/GP 4.01 - Environment Assessment Does the project require a stand-alone EA (including EMP) report? No FO_TABLE OP/BP 4.36 - Forests Has the sector-wide analysis of policy and institutional issues and constraints NA been carried out? Does the project design include satisfactory measures to overcome these NA constraints? Does the project finance commercial harvesting, and if so, does it include No provisions for certification system? PDI_TABLE The World Bank Policy on Disclosure of Information Have relevant safeguard policies documents been sent to the World Bank for Yes disclosure? Have relevant documents been disclosed in-country in a public place in a form and language that are understandable and accessible to project-affected groups Yes and local NGOs? ALL_TABLE All Safeguard Policies The World Bank RESTRUCTURING ISDS Liberia Land Administration Project (P162893) Have satisfactory calendar, budget and clear institutional responsibilities been Yes prepared for the implementation of measures related to safeguard policies? Have costs related to safeguard policy measures been included in the project Yes cost? Does the Monitoring and Evaluation system of the project include the monitoring Yes of safeguard impacts and measures related to safeguard policies? Have satisfactory implementation arrangements been agreed with the borrower Yes and the same been adequately reflected in the project legal documents? III. APPROVALS Task Team Leader(s) Linus Benedikt Pott Approved By Safeguards Advisor Hanneke Van Tilburg 19-Mar-2020 Practice Manager/Manager Jorge A. Munoz 19-Mar-2020 .