PROJECT INFORMATION DOCUMENT (PID) APPRAISAL STAGE Report No.: PIDA1917 Public Disclosure Copy Project Name Natural Resources Management in a Changing Climate in Mali (P145799) Region AFRICA Country Mali Sector(s) General agriculture, fishing and forestry sector (70%), Sub- national government administration (15%), Flood protection (10%), Other Renewable Energy (5%) Theme(s) Biodiversity (30%), Climate change (30%), Natural disaster management (20%), Decentralization (10%), Other environment and natural r esources management (10%) Lending Instrument Investment Project Financing Project ID P145799 Borrower(s) Ministry of Environment and Sanitation (Ministère de l’Environnement et de l’Assainissement Implementing Agency AEDD Environmental Category B-Partial Assessment Date PID Prepared/Updated 19-Sep-2013 Date PID Approved/Disclosed 20-Sep-2013 Estimated Date of Appraisal 31-Jul-2013 Public Disclosure Copy Completion Estimated Date of Board 24-Oct-2013 Approval Decision I. Project Context Country Context Natural vulnerability associated with a conflict situation: Mali has a total population, predominantly rural, estimated at 14.5 million people, with an average annual population growth rate of about 3.4 percent. Poverty is more prevalent in rural areas (57.6 percent) where most people continue to derive their livelihoods from agriculture and livestock; food insecurity and malnutrition are high. Livelihoods are essentially based on agriculture in the Sudanese and the Guinea savanna zones, and on livestock in the Sahelian zone. Land degradation is severe (because of factors related to increased population pressure, depletion of soil fertility and forests coverage), and its total annual cost is estimated at around 8% of GDP, but there are significant pockets of fertile land mainly in the central and southern parts of the country. The ongoing socio-political conflict triggered by the rebels attack and control of two-third of the country has set back Mali to fragile and highly vulnerable conditions since early 2012. The population displacement southward is putting Page 1 of 6 additional pressure on the natural resources (land, water resources, forests) in the non-occupied areas where the density is yet the highest of the country; the few fertile zones in the south are more under threat of degradation. Public Disclosure Copy Highly variable climate conditions: Between 1987 and 2007, Mali has experienced five major episodes of drought. Over the last 30 years, rainfall has declined by about 20 percent over the period 1970-2000 (with a southwards displacement of isohyets of about 200 km). The situation makes Malian land use systems inherently vulnerable, with alternate periods of drought and intense rainfall. In order to tackle new precarious environmental and climate conditions, massive migrations of people and animals towards more humid, but already saturated areas, increase the pressure on natural resources – the situation could potentially lead to conflicts over access to and use of natural resources. Gender inequity is still considerable: women and vulnerable groups (girls, homeless children, elder) have little access to education and means of productive (public employment, credit, agricultural inputs, farming tools and land) though men and women are declared to be equal through the country’s common laws. According to the latest Employment and Household Survey results, the incomes of 70 % of employed women is below the minimum wage against 30 % for men; in rural areas, 74 % of women earn less than the poverty threshold. Sectoral and institutional Context Ecological and climate crises are significantly exacerbated by inappropriate practices, such as over- encroachment of agriculture into rangeland areas and other marginal areas (27% of cultivated areas) as a result of a failure to appreciate the nature of long-term climatic variability. Frequent droughts contribute to threatening biodiversity and the ecosystems, by making them more vulnerable to the least disruption and by accelerating the speed of degradation of biological resources (in spite of efforts to establish a network of protected areas). Between 2000 and 2050, agricultural yield is Public Disclosure Copy expected to significantly decrease while rapidly growing population will put increasing pressure on both agricultural and non-agricultural land. A key constraint to agriculture is the use of unsustainable land management practices, with low usage of modern agricultural inputs, and weak access to farm management advice and financial services. In the energy sector, more than 80 percent of Malian households use wood and/or charcoal for cooking and heating, which poses challenges for a sustainable natural resource management in rural areas. Only about 15 percent of the rural population has access to electricity. About half of the 12,000 villages of Mali have a school or health center clinic or both, but most of them are without any form of energy for lighting or for operating equipment. Over the last two decades, the Government of Mali (GoM) has defined a number of policies and strategies in relation to natural resource management. Also several reforms have promoted and encouraged participatory and decentralized natural resource management to a more sustainable and equitable forms of resource use and conflict management. Regarding efforts towards adaptation to climate change, the Malian National Action Plan for Adaptation –NAPA- (Adopted in 2007) has identified a total of 19 priority projects which aims at: (i) highlighting key climate risks; (ii) identifying sectors, communities and areas that are particularly vulnerable to climate variability and change; (iii) identifying adaptive sectoral measures; and (iv) identifying adaptation priority projects. Page 2 of 6 In July 2010, the Government approved the Sustainable Land and Water Management (SLWM) Country Strategic Investment Framework (CSIF). The priorities of this Framework include: (i) Effective transfer of natural resources management to decentralized entities and Local Governments Public Disclosure Copy (regional assemblies and communes); (ii) Land tenure reviews encouraging better management by actual land users; (iii) Improved capacity of the decentralized entities; (iv) Well defined and common environmental policies; and (v) Effective coordination of land management and environmental programs. In 2011, the Ministry of Environment and Sanitation (MEA) approved a National Policy, a National Strategy and a National Action Plan for Climate change. The adopted ‘Climate change strategy’ is composed of six strategic areas: (i) the Climate Change Institutional Framework; (ii) the Climate Change funding; (iii) the national Climate change capacities; (iv) the information and awareness raising; (iv) the monitoring of climate in Mali; (v) the Mainstreaming of Climate change in sectoral and territorial policies; and (vi) the private sector involvement. The newly approved Mali Strategic Framework for Growth and Poverty Reduction (CSCRP 2012-2017) focuses, through its second axis (“Strengthening the foundations of long-term development and equitable access to quality social services�), on developing human resources, reducing gender inequality and improving access to social services, as well as preserving the environment, in a context of changing climate. In addition, the Government of Mali is part of the Great Green Wall Initiative (GGWI), launched in 2005 and endorsed in 2007 by the African Union, which is aiming at combatting desertification and improving the populations living conditions through the ‘’promotion of SLWM as a more ecologically appropriate, socioeconomically sustainable, and holistic approach at the landscape level to directly benefit local land and water users (farmers, agropastoralists, and mobile pastoralists). The GGWI Belt in Mali has been already identified and includes several land use systems such as: Forests; agrosystems; agro-sylvo-pastoral units, rangelands, protected areas. Public Disclosure Copy Strategically, the implementation of the GGWI will draw upon the abovementioned strategies with a special emphasis on the protection of watershed namely the Niger River’s ones. Major national institutional stakeholders operating in the management of natural resources and the support to diversified livelihoods are the following: the Ministry of the Environment and Sanitation (MEA), the Ministry of Agriculture (MAg), the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries (MEP), the Ministry of Energy and Water (MEE), the Ministry of Tourism and Craft Industry (MTA), and the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Local Governments (MATCL). As of the decentralization laws, there are three layers of local governments (regional, provincial and local), each of them having a dedicated mandate in the management of natural resources and the promotion of sustainable development. More particularly, from bottom up, there are in Mali a total of 703 Communes (of which 666 are rural Communes), 49 Provinces (groups of Communes) and 10 Regions (groups of Provinces). II. Proposed Development Objectives The Project Development Objective (PDO) is to expand the adoption of sustainable land and water management practices in targeted communes in Mali. This objective will be achieved through the implementation of capacity building, biodiversity conservation and support to poverty reduction activities through an ecosystem-based adaptation approach. Page 3 of 6 III. Project Description Component Name Public Disclosure Copy Comments (optional) IV. Financing (in USD Million) Total Project Cost: 21.43 Total Bank Financing: 12.00 Financing Gap: 8.43 For Loans/Credits/Others Amount BORROWER/RECIPIENT 1.00 International Development Association (IDA) 12.00 Total 13.00 V. Implementation The project will have two inter-related levels of arrangements for implementation: (i) the decision making and oversight level; and (ii) the coordination and management level. The overall project oversight will be vested with the National Steering Committee (NSC) composed of institutions involved participating to the platform of SLWM and climate change adaptation. The membership includes the Ministries in charge of environment, agriculture, livestock, fisheries, hydrology, civil protection, decentralization, land planning, territorial administration, tourism, meteorology and climatology, and economy, and civil society organizations including NGOs and feminine federation. The NSC will be responsible for: (i) ensuring inter-sectoral coordination and the harmonization of the interventions with similar initiatives; (ii) ensuring that all stakeholders are Public Disclosure Copy involved during the implementation; (iii) approving the annual workplans and budgets, and the annual implementation reports prior their disclosing to external audiences; (iv) clearing the audit reports. Further, it will provide policy guidance, ensure consistency with the National Environmental Policy throughout the implementation, and facilitate for any challenging issue that may arise. To comply with the decentralization mechanism and ensure that the implementation is duly monitored by local elect authorities, the mandates of the SC will be carried out by the Committees of Orientation, Coordination and Follow-up of the Development Actions at the regional, local and communal levels. The national and local steering committees meet on a yearly basis. There is no stand-alone project implementation unit. The coordination and management at the national level is entrusted to the Agency of Environment and Sustainable Development (‘’AEDD’’), which is the national agency in charge of implementing the National Environment Policy under the control of Ministry of Environment and Sanitation (‘’MEA’’).There will be no separate project implementation unit, but the AEDD will designate a core team among its staff, which skills meet the project requirements, to deal with daily coordination, management and monitoring tasks. This team led by the Director General of AEDD, Project Coordinator, will be composed of: (i) an SLWM, NRM and biodiversity specialist; (ii) an agroeconomist in charge of the Income Generating Activities (IGA); (iii) a communication specialist; (iv) an environmental and social safeguard specialist; (v) a monitoring and evaluation specialist; (vi) a procurement specialist; and (vii) a Page 4 of 6 financial management specialist. In its coordination mandate, the AEDD will have to: prepare the annual workplan and budgets, and coordinate their execution; sign and follow-up, the protocols of execution, with national institutions involved with the implementation of specific sub-components Public Disclosure Copy and activities; ensure the monitoring and evaluation of the overall project implementation; ensure the fiduciary responsibility over the overall project; prepare the implementation reports and audits; handle the secretariat role for the National Steering Committee and assure information flow to the line local committees (CROCSAD, CLOCSAD, CCOCSAD). The Project implementation manual (PIM) is finalized and will be approved prior to project effectiveness. It will include project guidelines, description of functional mandates of the various operational entities (supervision/coordination, execution/implementation, monitoring/evaluation), procurement mechanisms and procedures, draft standard contracts for service provision, and draft terms of reference (ToRs) for recruitment. Complementary to this main manual, two sub-manuals are being approved: (i) the manual for the implementation of the income generating activities (IGA); and the manual of monitoring and evaluation. VI. Safeguard Policies (including public consultation) Safeguard Policies Triggered by the Project Yes No Environmental Assessment OP/BP 4.01 ✖ Natural Habitats OP/BP 4.04 ✖ Forests OP/BP 4.36 ✖ Pest Management OP 4.09 ✖ Physical Cultural Resources OP/BP 4.11 ✖ Indigenous Peoples OP/BP 4.10 ✖ Involuntary Resettlement OP/BP 4.12 ✖ Safety of Dams OP/BP 4.37 ✖ Projects on International Waterways OP/BP 7.50 ✖ Public Disclosure Copy Projects in Disputed Areas OP/BP 7.60 ✖ Comments (optional) VII. Contact point World Bank Contact: Maman-Sani Issa Title: Senior Environmental Specialist Tel: Email: missa1@worldbank.org Borrower/Client/Recipient Ministry of Environment and Sanitation (Ministère de l’Environnement et de Name: l’Assainissement Contact: Felix Dakouo Title: Secretary General of the Ministry Tel: 22320791686 Email: dakouof@yahoo.fr Implementing Agencies Page 5 of 6 Name: AEDD Contact: Mamadou Gakou Title: General Manager Public Disclosure Copy Tel: 22320235867 Email: mgkou@yahoo.fr VIII. For more information contact: The InfoShop The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20433 Telephone: (202) 458-4500 Fax: (202) 522-1500 Web: http://www.worldbank.org/infoshop Public Disclosure Copy Page 6 of 6