INTEGRATED SAFEGUARDS DATA SHEET CONCEPT STAGE Report No.: 76145 Date ISDS Prepared/Updated: 03/19/2013 I. BASIC INFORMATION A. Basic Project Data Country: Mali Project ID: P127328 Project Name: Emergency Safety Nets project (Jigiséméjiri) Task Team Leader: Setareh Razmara Estimated Appraisal Date: December 3, Estimated Board Date: April 11, 2013 2012 Managing Unit: AFTSW Lending Instrument: Emergency Recovery Loan Sector: Other social services (100%) Theme: Social safety nets (50%);Other social protection and risk management (20%);Vulnerability assessment and monitoring (20%);Nutrition and food security (10%) IBRD Amount (US$m.): 0 IDA Amount (US$m.): 70 GEF Amount (US$m.): 0 PCF Amount (US$m.): 0 Other financing amounts by source: BORROWER/RECIPIENT 0.00 0.00 B. Project Objectives [from section 2 of PCN] The project development objective (PDO) is to provide targeted cash transfers to the poor and food insecure households and to establish building blocks for a national safety net system in Mali. C. Project Description [from section 3 of PCN] The proposed Emergency safety Nets project (Jigiséméjiri) will have three components: (i) cash transfers and accompanying measures to the poor households; (ii) establishment of a basic safety net system; and (iii) project management. Component 1 –Cash Transfer program and accompanying measures (Total Cost including contingencies US$56.5 million) The specific objective of this component is to: (i) In the short-term: mitigate current poverty and vulnerability in selected areas by smoothing and increasing consumption, mainly food consumption (quantity and quality of meals) of households through targeted and regular Cash Transfers (CT); and (ii) in the medium/long-term: improve human capital of children by creating incentives for poor households to invest in their children's health and education through the combination of CT, AM, and delivery of a piloted preventive Nutrition Packages (NP). In this framework, the combined interventions will offer support to chronic food poor households to cope with current low consumption and seasonal shocks, as well as opportunities for a sustained improvement of living conditions. The planned interventions (CT, AM and NP) offer complementary benefits for the same targeted group of the population (chronic food poor) and consequently will be implemented in the same villages and target the same population. Moreover, selected villages will receive NP intervention that is designed to reach all children under age of 5 years old and pregnant women as a pilot exercise given the complexity of logistics in supporting service delivery and to tracking beneficiaries of such an intervention. In the longer-term, it is expected that a broader set of interventions will benefit from the national safety net system to be built, since other interventions can be added to the system to increase the impact of safety nets in the country without wasting scare resources (including conditional cash transfers). Moreover, existing safety nets programs, such as school feeding and food distribution programs, can improve their targeting once a national registry system is developed. Sub-component 1A: Direct Cash Transfers to poor households (Total Cost including contingencies US$ 48.9 million) 17. The CT component aims to provide timely, predictable and regular transfers to eligible households. Timely transfers will ensure achievement of program objectives, smoothing and increasing consumption, as well as protecting assets. Predictable transfers allow households to maximize the use of the money and helps households to make livelihood investments, because the timeliness and predictability of transfers enables households to plan and invest in the future, particularly in the human capital of their children. Moreover, regular transfers over an extended period may also help the household acquire productive and agricultural assets. By providing timely and regular payment, the program shifts from being ad hoc support with short-term impacts on households well-being to a continuous support system, enabling households to plan and invest in the future, particularly in human capital. To this end, the program duration will be 36 months for selected households, and payments are expected to reach beneficiaries on quarterly basis during the project cycle. The CT will be delivered to the head of the household, or to the person identified by the head of household, because recent evidence shows that the head of household is responsible for provision of food for all household members while non-food expenditures (other than housing) are the responsibility of individual members including the women who take care of expenditures related to children. The target groups will include the chronic food poor households in rural areas of the five regions in the south of the country and in the urban areas of the Bamako district. The cash transfer component will target households according to their poverty levels, their needs, characteristics and capabilities. At the request of the Government, the program will be implemented in all five regions in the south (Sikasso, Segou, Mopti, Koulikoro and Kayes) and in the district of Bamako. Since the cash transfer program is the first large scale intervention of this kind in Mali, the proposed Project will rely on a combination of geographic and community- based targeting mechanisms, as is used in pilot programs such as UNICEF - Bourse Maman (closed in 2006), and ongoing OXFAM - Projet Pilote de Facilité Alimentaire. Sub-component 1B: Accompanying measures (Total Cost including contingencies US$3.9 million) To maximize the benefits of cash transfers (CT) accompanying measures related to health and education will be introduced to generate incentives for households to invest in human capital accumulation that can reduce the intergenerational transmission of poverty. Accompanying measures at commune/village level will provide information to beneficiaries to promote investment in the human capital of their children. Beneficiaries of the CT will be expected to attend accompanying activities, but their absence will not result in a penalty or suspension. Over the first year of intervention, the Government will study the best way to evaluate the capacity of implementing agencies to deal with the compliance procedures. The accompanying measures will include a package of various interventions, such as (i) information sessions on the program's objective and moral contract to participate in registration; and (ii) community/village level information campaigns to promote good practices in health, education, nutrition, family planning, investment/saving planning. Accompanying measures will include a package of interventions based on Malian experience on children' health and education. To improve hygiene practices and to improve education, the accompanying measures sessions will be designed according to: (i) the Malian Parental Educational Manual (Guide Méthodologique de Formation en Education Parentale) that has been developed in the context of the ongoing pilot Early Childhood Development (ECD) program; (ii) the Malian Educational Policy (Politique de l'Éducation au Mali); and (iii) the Malian Health Policies to promote the adoption of good health and nutrition practices, in order to highlight and reinforce the importance of exclusive breast-feeding, adequate and timely complementary feeding, and hygiene education for the human capital development of the children. The details of the appropriate arrangements for the AM will be defined as the assessment of AM providers is concluded by the end of February 2013. Moreover a Manual of Procedures for accompanying measures will be prepared during the first year of project implementation defining the details of the program. Sub-component 1C: Pilot Preventive Nutrition Package to children under five-years-old and pregnant women (Total Cost including contingencies US$3.7 million) The Pilot Preventive Nutrition Package (NP) is a complementary intervention to AM sessions focusing on preventive care for children and pregnant women that will be tested in a few villages. About 10% of villages selected for the cash transfer program intervention will be identified for this pilot activity according to the AM agencies capacity to deliver in-kind NP packages. In selected villages, there will be an information campaign to inform the communities that the NPs will be provided to all children under five and pregnant women during the AM sessions. The AM agencies that are providing the awareness sessions will be in charge of distributing NPs and informing attendees during the sessions how to use the products. The NPs will be tailored to each zone of intervention according to the population's needs and will be discussed in the PIM. Component 2 – Establishment of a basic safety nets system (Total Cost including contingencies US$6.8 million) This component will cover the set-up of basic elements of the social safety nets system. The Government aims to develop a safety nets system to support a long term safety nets interventions in the country. This component of the Jigiséméjiri is aligned with th National Social Protection Framework, to support the broad Malian Poverty Reduction policy by the provision of technical support to the design an efficient safety nets system that will consolidate and harmonize all social safety nets in the country. To this end, activities financed by this component will support (i) the development of the management information system (MIS) (including modules to track payments and compliance of AM and NP delivery, to prepare reporting information, and set-up a grievance reporting); (ii) the set-up of a Unified Registry (UR) of potential beneficiaries of safety nets program, which in this project is planned to reach about 62,000 beneficiaries who will benefit from cash transfers by the end of 2015 and about 120,000 by the end of 2017 including the potential beneficiaries of safety nets programs; (iii) the set-up of an Information Education and Communication Campaign (IEC); (iv) the set-up of monitoring and evaluation procedures; (v) training programs at central and regional level; (vi) Technical assistance to design a cash for work program as part of the safety net programs; and (vii) additional studies on targeting mechanism, payment mechanism and accompanying measures. Component 3 – Project management (Total Cost including contingencies US$ 7.9 million including US$ 6.7 from IDA and US$ 1.2 million from Government contribution) This component will support project management. It will ensure that the UTGFS is operational and that it successfully and efficiently implements the Project in conformity with the Financing Agreement, project document and the Project Implementation Manual (PIM). This component will finance: (i) UTGFS staff (non-civil servant) salaries including operational costs at the regional levels; (ii) equipment and operating costs for UTGFS directly linked to the daily management of the project (office space, utilities and supplies, bank charges, communications, vehicle operation, maintenance and insurance, building and equipment maintenance costs, travel and supervision costs, etc.); (iii) regular internal audits and annual external audits (as per Bank legal requirements audits of financial and procurement aspects); and (iv) training of personnel of UTGFS (at both central and regional levels). Within the framework of the monitoring cycle, a mid-term review will involve project's stakeholders and civil society in the review of project performance, intermediary results, and outcomes. The progress and impact of the project will be measured using the data collected at the mid-term review and at the end of the project. D. Project location (if known) The cash transfer component will reach all the five regions of the south - Sikasso, Ségou, Mopti, Koulikoro and Kayes – plus the district of Bamako. E. Borrower’s Institutional Capacity for Safeguard Policies [from PCN] As the project is focused on cash transfers, information and other management systems, and capacity-building, and does not involve civil works or activities with significant environmental and social impacts, it does not trigger the Bank safeguards policies. F. Environmental and Social Safeguards Specialists Mr Demba Balde (AFTCS) Mr Maman-Sani Issa (AFTN2) II. SAFEGUARD POLICIES THAT MIGHT APPLY Safeguard Policies Triggered Yes No TBD 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 Environmental Category: C - Not Required III. SAFEGUARD PREPARATION PLAN A. Target date for the Quality Enhancement Review (QER), at which time the PAD-stage ISDS would be prepared: N/A B. For projects that will not require a QER, the target date for preparing the PAD-stage ISDS: 02/22/2013 C. Time frame for launching and completing the safeguard-related studies that may be needed. The specific studies and their timing1 should be specified in the PAD-stage ISDS. Not Applicable 1 Reminder: The Bank's Disclosure Policy requires that safeguard-related documents be disclosed before appraisal (i) at the InfoShop and (ii) in-country, at publicly accessible locations and in a form and language that are accessible to potentially affected persons. IV. APPROVALS Signed and submitted by: Task Team Leader: Ms Setareh Razmara 03/19/2013 Approved by: Regional Safeguards Coordinator: Ms Alexandra C. Bezeredi 03/19/2013 Comments: Sector Manager: Mr Stefano Paternostro 03/19/2013 Comments: