INTEGRATED SAFEGUARDS DATA SHEET CONCEPT STAGE Public Disclosure Copy Report No.: ISDSC1636 Date ISDS Prepared/Updated: 19-May-2013 Date ISDS Approved/Disclosed: 20-May-2013 I. BASIC INFORMATION A. Basic Project Data Country: Dominican Republic Project ID: P131109 Project Name: DO Flexible Employment System Project (FESP) (P131109) Task Team Juan Martin Moreno Leader: Estimated 03-Jun-2013 Estimated 30-Jul-2013 Appraisal Date: Board Date: Managing Unit: LCSHS-DPT Lending Specific Investment Loan Instrument: Sector(s): Vocational training (25%), Other social services (75%) Theme(s): Improving labor markets (40%), Social safety nets (20%), Social risk mitigation (40%) Financing (In USD Million) Total Project Cost: 20.00 Total Bank Financing: 20.00 Public Disclosure Copy Total Cofinancing: Financing Gap: 0.00 Financing Source Amount Borrower 0.00 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development 20.00 Total 20.00 Environmental B - Partial Assessment Category: Is this a Yes Repeater project? B. Project Objectives C. Project Description This project is comprised of 3 components that support two programs from the National Employment System implemented by the Ministry of Labor (MoL), the Temporary Employment Project (TEP) and the youth training program (PJyE). The last component is exclusively aimed at increasing the transparency and visibility of the NES through the production and dissemination of monitoring and progress reports, as well as the development of a rigorous impact evaluation: Component 1:Enhancing employability among vulnerable populations. The TEP builds on the Public Disclosure Copy experience of the pilot temporary employment program ‘Santiago Trabaja’ implemented under component 4 of the Youth Development Project (Loan DO 7371). The program improves the employability of low-skilled, poor, and long-term unemployed job seekers by providing them with temporary employment for six months, along with life-skills training (DCB, Desarrollo de Competencias Básicas). After completion of the first stage, participants enroll in a technical and vocational training (TVT) program for 2 months that is provided by Instituto Nacional de Formación Técnico Profesional (INFOTEP). An intermediate certificate is issued to graduates from the TVT to improve their chances of labor market insertion, or to continue with the certification of the competencies acquired during the participation in the TEP. The enrollment of potential participants of the TEP is channeled through the intermediation services at the Ministry of Labor (SENAE, Servicio Nacional de Empleo). Both participants and non-eligible persons are able to participate in SENAE’s intermediation activities. During the first four months beneficiaries will attend life-skills training courses in parallel to the labor related activities. Over the last two months beneficiaries will attend TVT courses that they have previously opted for. The selection of TVT courses to be offered to participants is determined in consultation with the private sector. As part of the intermediation services to be offered by SENAE, employers will be linked to graduating beneficiaries at the graduation ceremony, facilitating the matching of vacancies and candidates (trained in the needed competencies). The range of TVT courses to be offered to employers and employees is restricted to a set of up to 200-hour courses provided by INFOTEP. Finally, the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) will be in charge of the execution of sub-projects, which will be competitively selected. Component 2: Preparing At-Risk Youth for the Labor Market. The youth training component of the FESP is focused on poor and disadvantaged young people that are neither at work nor studying, the idle youth commonly referred as “No-Nis�. The third generation of PJyE will be implemented by INFOTEP and consists of a 150-hour DCB/life-skills training course, plus an apprenticeship experience of up to 2 months at the end of the beneficiary’s participation. The participants are provided with the teaching material, plus a daily stipend of US$3, paid weekly during the 2 months Public Disclosure Copy that the person is on the program. The courses are provided alternatively by INFOTEP or a series of pre-qualified in dependent training institutions that are competitively selected after each call for proposals. These COS (Centros Operativos del Sistema) need to be previously inspected and certified by INFOTEP and are responsible for enrolling potential beneficiaries, contacting private firms where participants will develop the apprenticeship experience, delivering the training courses and paying the beneficiary the daily stipend. The project will consolidate the knowledge transfer that took place under the YDP when INFOTEP delivered 400 courses, both under the traditional private sector modality and the promotion of entrepreneurship and self-employment, particularly in rural or disadvantaged areas of the country where there are few salaried job opportunities. Component 3: Strengthening Government Capacity for Policy Implementation, Monitoring, and Evaluation. The objective of this component is to improve the MoL’s capacity to reach the target population of the supported programs through strengthened program coordination, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. This component is comprised of three main activities. The first one is to scale-up the TEP by taking advantage of the l essons learned from the pilot program. The second activity will support program monitoring with a particular emphasis on the production of periodical reports that will be made public in order to improve the program’s transparency and legitimacy. Finally, the third activity will finance an impact evaluation to rigorously identify the effects of the TEP on the participant’s likelihood of finding a job and increasing their earnings. D. Project location and salient physical characteristics relevant to the safeguard analysis (if known) The initial program was piloted in the province of Santiago, from where the new program will Public Disclosure Copy sequentially expand from the city in which it was originally piloted to cover 4 additional cities or regions. These additional cities are left undefined on purpose to beable to adapt the delivery of the program to cities or regions in which the economic crisis hits employment hardest. The geographical distribution of sub-projects and beneficiaries is also left undefined to allow the MoL to adjust the distribution according to the lessons learned from implementation (such as implementation and financial capacity of local CSOs), and information from monitoring reports of the unemployment incidence, distribution and evolution produced by OMLAD (Observatorio del Mercado Laboral Dominicano) and included in the monitoring report of the TEP. The geographic distribution and the expansion schedule will be submitted for approval to the Bank with the yearly Operations and Procurement Plan. As under the on-going YDP, the employment activities supported by the new project are expected to focus on improving communities through small public works or services in urban/residential areas; they are thus not expected to involve agricultural work or impose potential negative impacts on forests or (other) natural habitats. However, these expectations will be revised or confirmed before appraisal once the existing Environmental Management Framework (EMF) has been reviewed to incorporate lessons learned from the pilot phase. This might imply triggering of further safeguards and incorporating respective management aspects within the revised EMF as needed. E. Borrowers Institutional Capacity for Safeguard Policies Five basic measures comprise the borrower’s strategy to address the safeguards policies: (a) review and revision, as needed, of the existing EMF before appraisal; (b) contracting of an experienced environmental and social specialist in the project unit; (c) the provision of induction courses for sub- project implementing entities (SIEs) to train them in the process of sub-project proposal presentation to ensure inclusion of adequate environmental and health and safety measures and/or equipment; (d) Public Disclosure Copy training for teams of workers in regard to environmental management and health and safety; and (e) a detailed OM that includes guidelines based on the EMF to be followed during the project cycle. Again, the OM will be reviewed and potentially revised prior to appraisal. The induction course for SIEs will provide a detailed training to level the capacities of different institutions to present proposals that will be competitively selected. The induction course will be provided by the project environmental and social specialists with support from the World Bank team to leave capacities installed both at the institutional level (territorial support unit, UTAs), as well as at the local level (SIE). The course will provide an overview of the institutional and legal framework that regulates the activities to be undertaken in the sub-projects as reported in the EMF, which will guide the evaluation of the proposals. In the case of presentation of proposals with potential adverse impacts, they will be highlighted and special attention will be paid to the complementary pieces of information to be attached to the presentation, such as suggested mitigation measures by the implementing institution. Each UTA that is supporting and supervising sub-projects includes a team specialist that will have specific environmental functions and capacities included in his/her Terms of Reference (ToR). The principal aspects taken into account within the EMF are: A. Sub-projects eligibility criteria: Given the characteristics of the program, with regard to the profile of the beneficiaries and the objectives of contribution to the improvement of their employability, the sub-projects should meet the following guidelines: 1. Be of community interest. 2. Generate public benefits. 3. Fully implementability in six months. Public Disclosure Copy 4. Activities of a scale that imply a maximum of 25 beneficiary workers of the TEP. 5. Be of low complexity. That is: (i) it does not require specialized structural designs, (ii) do not need specialized studies such as on soil, seismology, etc., (iii) are not of Category A of resolution 06 of 2004 of SEMARN, and (iv) do not require sophisticated implementation mechanisms which would exclude participation of the beneficiaries. 6. Sub-projects that require intensive use of unskilled labor. The sub-project typologies defined and their scope or accepted maximum dimensions are presented in the EMF and OM. This has been done to ensure that only projects with low negative impacts will be supported. In addition, sub-project preparation activities include consultation mechanisms to ensure responsiveness to local considerations and inputs. B. Local Legal Framework: The municipal Law 176-07 creates the Municipal Environmental Units (UGAM) with five basic functions: (i) preparation of the standards for environmental and natural resources protection in the municipality; (ii) preparation of civic education programs for the management and treatment of solid waste; (iii) assessment of environmental viability of sub-projects submitted to the municipal council that require an environmental assessment; (iv) guarantee compliance with the Ley General de Medio Ambiente at the municipal level; and (v) develop programs for the use of public spaces (parks, plazas, green areas). Those municipalities that do not have the ability to provide maintenance must partner with neighboring municipalities to allow for such provision. In addition, Law 64-00 requires every Municipal Council to belong to the National System of Environmental Management of Natural Resources. It establishes the mandate of each municipality and establishes the creation of UGAMs. The principal activities to be carried out by the UGAMs are concerned with aspects that directly affect the community: garbage, noise, and environmental complaints due to pollution. The main topics on which the above mentioned Law provides guidance are: (i) solid waste management; (ii) environmental damages; (iii) environmental permissions; (iv) Public Disclosure Copy monitoring of management plans; and (v) concepts on project viability. Recognizing that the UGAMs are not strong in regards to capacity, the UTA’s members with environmental assignments will be interacting with these units, providing guidance, training, and support as necessary through the project cycle. The existing EMF has been disclosed within the country as well as in InfoShop. The EMF will be reviewed and updated based on the experience from implementation of the YDP and any changes in applicable national regulation. The revised framework will be disclosed prior to appraisal within the country and in InfoShop. The EMF will form a part of the project’s Operational Manual. F. Environmental and Social Safeguards Specialists on the Team Jose Vicente Zevallos (LCSSO) Tuuli Johanna Bernardini (LCSEN) II. SAFEGUARD POLICIES THAT MIGHT APPLY Safeguard Policies Triggered? Explanation (Optional) Environmental Assessment OP/ Yes The planned works and services that the project BP 4.01 will finance will focus on relatively small sub- projects of community interest (please see below for examples). The project counts with the Environmental Management Framework Public Disclosure Copy (EMF) of the YDP that was prepared in August 2010. It provides guidance on classifying and evaluating proposed employment activities according to a typology that also forms a part of the OM for sub-project screening, design, approval, implementation, and closing. The EMF describes negative environmental impacts that different types of sub-projects could cause and guides on respective management measures to prevent, mitigate or compensate them. The EMF will be revised by appraisal as needed. Natural Habitats OP/BP 4.04 No The project will not finance activities that would affect natural habitats as defined in Annex A of OP 4.04. Forests OP/BP 4.36 No The project will not finance activities that would affect forests or communities that depend on their services. Pest Management OP 4.09 No The project will not finance activities that would involve purchase or use of pesticides or other agricultural chemicals. Physical Cultural Resources OP/ No The project will not finance activities that would BP 4.11 affect physical cultural resources as defined in the introduction of OP 4.11. The EMF will be revised to include guidance for appropriate Public Disclosure Copy action to be taken in case any chance finds would occur during project implementation. Indigenous Peoples OP/BP 4.10 No The project will not finance activities that would affect indigenous people groups. Involuntary Resettlement OP/BP No The project will not finance activities that would 4.12 imply involuntary resettlement or direct economic and social impacts as defined in OP 4.12. Safety of Dams OP/BP 4.37 No TThe project will not finance any type of dams or activities that would depend on existing dams. Projects on International No The project will not finance activities that would Waterways OP/BP 7.50 affect international waterways. Projects in Disputed Areas OP/BP No There are no disputed areas within the project 7.60 area. III. SAFEGUARD PREPARATION PLAN A. Tentative target date for preparing the PAD Stage ISDS: 31-Dec-2012 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. B. 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: The existing EMF will be reviewed, revised, and disclosed by appraisal. Public Disclosure Copy IV. APPROVALS Task Team Leader: Name: Juan Martin Moreno Approved By: Regional Safeguards Name: Date: Coordinator: Sector Manager: Name: Mansoora Rashid (SM) Date: 20-May-2013 Public Disclosure Copy