Public Disclosure Copy The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Improving Preschool Education in Georgia through Social Accountability Processes (P161435) Improving Preschool Education in Georgia through Social Accountability Processes (P161435) EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA | Georgia | Governance Global Practice | Recipient Executed Activities | Investment Project Financing | FY 2017 | Seq No: 1 | ARCHIVED on 13-Jun-2019 | ISR31421 | Implementing Agencies: Save the Children – Georgia Office, Save the Children – Georgia Office Key Dates Key Project Dates Bank Approval Date:24-Mar-2017 Effectiveness Date:10-Apr-2017 Original Closing Date:16-Jan-2020 Revised Closing Date:16-Jan-2020 Project Development Objectives Project Development Objective (from Project Appraisal Document) The objective of the Project is to empower citizens through social accountability interventions, to improve the delivery of and resource allocation of pre-school education services in targeted municipalities of the Member Country. Has the Project Development Objective been changed since Board Approval of the Project Objective? No PHRPDODEL Components Name Overall Ratings Name Previous Rating Current Rating Progress towards achievement of PDO  --  Satisfactory Overall Implementation Progress (IP)  --  Satisfactory Implementation Status and Key Decisions Implementation Progress is assessed as Satisfactory as bulk of the project’s intermediate outcome indicators are on track and key activities well advanced. As of May 10, 2019, the grant has disbursed 69 percent of the proceeds, about 470,000 USD from the total grant amount of 680,000 USD. The benchmarking methodology was developed, which is instrumental for generating data for social accountability. The new tool collects data from 3 different sources to monitor kindergarten performance and collect feedback from service recipients. Benchmarking system consists of 4 main areas: (i) management of kindergartens; (ii) cooperation with parents and local community; (iii) educational and developmental processes; and (iv) 6/13/2019 Page 1 of 8 Public Disclosure Copy Public Disclosure Copy The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Improving Preschool Education in Georgia through Social Accountability Processes (P161435) infrastructure and environment. The data is collected through financial questionnaire for reporting on kindergarten spending by different categories, kindergarten self-assessment questionnaire that collects information on how the kindergartens are managed and collaborates with communities, educational processes and infrastructure environment, and parent surveys. The latter is the main tool to support the social accountability approach and ensure service receivers voice is heard by the decision makers. The data allows managers to understand where the kindergarten stands vis-à- vis pre-defined quality criteria and what is needed to further develop and get to the advance level. The project covers municipalities with ethnic- minorities, particularly Marneuli municipality having one of the largest ethnic minority – Azeri population in Georgia. As field visits showed that majority of kindergarten staff had difficulty understanding Georgian language, the project supported translation of benchmarking tools into Azeri language. As of today, Benchmarking was implemented in 7 pilot municipalities under the project to assess performance of selected 13 kindergartens. The benchmarking tools were fine-tuned following the pilot and finalized for application in all kindergartens of 42 municipalities The generated data has been entered in the specially designed software. The data produced through benchmarking is already applied by National Preschool Association (NPA) members to advocate the most burning issues revealed during the exercise. The benchmarking data will shortly become publicly available. The grant supported wide-range of capacity building activities. National Preschool Association was established under the grant in October 2018 to support kindergartens. NPA currently enrolls 42 municipalities instead of originally planned 27 municipalities. NPA board members from the 27 municipalities have received targeted trainings to improve capacity in public speaking, monitoring and social accountability; moreover, the trainings supported professional development of 16 teachers from Rustavi to attend 6-day training HEART (Healing and Education through Art) program that is art-based approach to support children’s emotional well-being and development. Additional time will be needed to support capacity building of new member municipalities. The project is supporting the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports in planning and decision making through data and evidence generated from the benchmarking exercise. The project is governed by a Steering Committee composed of all relevant governmental agencies responsible for Early Childhood Education. Risks Overall Risk Rating Risk Category Rating at Approval Previous Rating Current Rating Overall  --  --  Low Results Project Development Objective Indicators PHINDPDOTBL Number of targeted municipalities undergo benchmarking assessment (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 0.00 -- 42.00 27.00 Date 31-Jan-2017 -- 10-May-2019 16-Jan-2020 Comments On Track. 6/13/2019 Page 2 of 8 Public Disclosure Copy Public Disclosure Copy The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Improving Preschool Education in Georgia through Social Accountability Processes (P161435) PHINDPDOTBL The percentage of surveyed respondents in the target communities who confirm positive changes due to newly established benchmarking system (Text, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target The work toward the achievement of indicator is in progress but baseline and follow on surveys have been postponed. During the initial meetings in 7 pilot municipalities the potential positive impact of benchmarking system has been identified and Value n/a -- discussed with 20% increase kindergarten staff; The external evaluation will define the percentage increase of an indicator. The baseline shall be conducted during the second round of benchmarking, that will take place in Summer 2019. Date 31-Mar-2017 -- 10-May-2019 16-Jan-2020 PHINDPDOTBL Percentage of identified issues addressed in annual municipal programs and financial plans as a results of benchmarking (Text, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target The work toward the achievement of indicator is in progress; the initial meetings with representatives of 20 Value n/a -- self-government 30 percent executive and representative bodies have been conducted and agreed that the benchmarking results 6/13/2019 Page 3 of 8 Public Disclosure Copy Public Disclosure Copy The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Improving Preschool Education in Georgia through Social Accountability Processes (P161435) will be included in the municipal program planning process; As more municipalities joined the benchmarking process than originally planned, by the end of the 2nd year, the grant will generate benchmarking results from all 42 municipalities and it will be possible to calculate what challenges have been revealed and what percentage of them have been addressed; There is an early evidence on the application of the benchmarking results in pilot municipalities. The benchmarking exercise revealed that only 0.16 of total municipal spending on preschool education is spend on the kindergarten staff training, which creates serious concerns for adequate professional development of preschool teachers. As a result, one of the municipalities (Ozurgeti municipality) already created a new line for teacher training in their annual budget plan. Date 31-Mar-2017 -- 10-May-2019 16-Jan-2020 Overall Comments Intermediate Results Indicators 6/13/2019 Page 4 of 8 Public Disclosure Copy Public Disclosure Copy The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Improving Preschool Education in Georgia through Social Accountability Processes (P161435) PHINDIRITBL Developed Monitoring and Feedback (Benchmarking) Methodology finalized after pioloting in 7 municipalities; (Text, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Achieved. New benchmarking system Methodology was developed, piloted finalized in in 7 municipalities and consultation Value No System in Place -- finalized reflecting pilot with municipal experience in and state consultation with authorities. municipal and state authorities. Date 31-Jan-2017 -- 10-May-2019 31-Jan-2020 PHINDIRITBL Number of municipalities (out of 71) constructively engaged in consultations on finalization of benchmarking methodology through established online platform. (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 0.00 -- 42.00 27.00 Date 31-Jan-2017 -- 10-May-2019 31-Jan-2020 Comments 7 municipalities are engaged in consultations on finalization of benchmarking methodology through mailing list and Facebook group. By the end of year 2, additional 20 municipality will join the discussions. PHINDIRITBL Comparative analytical reports evaluating local and sectoral political economy contexts in 7 pilot municipalities to inform the pilot and manage risks (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 0.00 -- 1.00 3.00 Date 31-Jan-2017 -- 10-May-2019 31-Jan-2020 6/13/2019 Page 5 of 8 Public Disclosure Copy Public Disclosure Copy The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Improving Preschool Education in Georgia through Social Accountability Processes (P161435) PHINDIRITBL Percentage of National Preschool Association (NPA) members capable to deliver/apply benchmarking. (Text, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target The capacity building of 27 municipalities has been finalized; Capacity building of the Value 0 percent -- 100 percent remainder, newly joined municipalities will take place in the coming months. Date 31-Jan-2017 -- 10-May-2019 31-Jan-2020 Comments This activity is behind the schedule given the expansion of NPA membership from intended 7 municipalities to 27; NPA was established in June 2018 with seven municipalities and additional kindergartens from 20 municipalities joined in December 2018; capacity building activities have been postponed to prepare and include all 27 municipalities in the training. PHINDIRITBL Fully Funtional National Preschool Association represented in all targeted municipalities. (Number (Thousand), Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 0.00 -- 27.00 27.00 Date 31-Jan-2017 -- 10-May-2019 31-Jan-2020 PHINDIRITBL Number of learning sessions dedicated to program improvement based on project implementation findings. (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 0.00 -- 10.00 12.00 Date 31-Jan-2017 -- 10-May-2019 31-Jan-2020 Comments The project Team both from Save the Children and Civitas Georgia meets every month to discuss project progress, challenges, lessons learned and to identify improved implementation modalities as needed. 6/13/2019 Page 6 of 8 Public Disclosure Copy Public Disclosure Copy The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Improving Preschool Education in Georgia through Social Accountability Processes (P161435) PHINDIRITBL NPA uses information from knowledge products to adapt the benchmarking process to their political context. (Text, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target On track. NPA is still nascent institution, but NPA uses gradually becoming information functional. The NPA has from knowledge reviewed the tools and products to provided feedback how Value Not in place -- adapt the to improve it to adapt to benchmarking the local features of the process to their member kindergartens. political Recommendations have context. been considered by project team. Date 31-Jan-2017 -- 10-May-2019 31-Jan-2020 Overall Comments Data on Financial Performance Disbursements (by loan) Project Loan/Credit/TF Status Currency Original Revised Cancelled Disbursed Undisbursed Disbursed P161435 TF-A4473 Effective USD 0.68 0.68 0.00 0.47 0.21 69% Key Dates (by loan) Project Loan/Credit/TF Status Approval Date Signing Date Effectiveness Date Orig. Closing Date Rev. Closing Date P161435 TF-A4473 Effective 24-Mar-2017 10-Apr-2017 10-Apr-2017 16-Jan-2020 16-Jan-2020 Cumulative Disbursements 6/13/2019 Page 7 of 8 Public Disclosure Copy Public Disclosure Copy The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Improving Preschool Education in Georgia through Social Accountability Processes (P161435) Restructuring History There has been no restructuring to date. Related Project(s) There are no related projects. 6/13/2019 Page 8 of 8 Public Disclosure Copy