11-Oct-2023 Date: ______________________ H.E. Moussa Cisse Minister of Economy and Finance Ministry of Economy and Finance Sise au quartier Boulbinet - Kaloum Conakry Guinea Re: Republic of Guinea Credit No. 6392-GN and Grant No. D444-GN (First Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence for Development Impact Project) Amendment to the Financing Agreement Excellency: We refer to the Financing Agreement (the “Financing Agreement”) dated April 12, 2019, between Republic of Guinea (the “Recipient”) and the International Development Association (the “Association”), for the First Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence for Development Impact Project. We also refer to your letter dated July 12, 2022, requesting the Association to amend certain provisions of the Financing Agreement for the above-titled Project. Please note that the capitalized terms used in this amendment letter (“Amendment Letter”) and not defined herein have the meanings ascribed to them in the Financing Agreement. We are pleased to inform you that, after due consideration, the Association hereby agrees to your request and proposes to amend the Financing Agreement as set forth below: 1. The disbursement table as set forth in Section III.A of Schedule 2 to the Financing Agreement is hereby amended and replaced with the table set forth in Annex 1 of this Amendment Letter. 2. Section III.B.5 of Schedule 2 to the Financing Agreement is hereby amended to read as follows: “5. The Closing Date is June 30, 2025.” 3. Schedule 4 of the Financing Agreement is hereby deleted in its entirety and replaced with the table set forth in Annex 2 of this Amendment Letter. Except as herein expressly amended, all other provisions of the Financing Agreement shall remain in full force and effect. -2- Please confirm your agreement on behalf of the Recipient, to the foregoing amendments and revisions by countersigning and dating this Amendment Letter. This amendment shall become effective as of the date of its countersignature. Sincerely, INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION By: __________________________ Boutheina Guermazi Director of Regional Integration Africa, Middle East and North Africa Region AGREED AND CONFIRMED: REPUBLIC OF GUINEA 25-Oct-2023 By: _____________________________ Date: _________________________ H.E. Moussa Cisse Minister of Economy and Finance -3- Annex 1 Disbursement Table for Credit No. 6392-GN and Grant No. D444-GN Amount of the Amount of the Percentage of Credit Allocated Grant Allocated Expenditures to be (expressed in (expressed in Financed “Category SDR) SDR) (inclusive of Taxes) (1) Eligible Expenditure Programs 100% of amounts under Parts 1 and 2.1 of the spent and reported Project for ACE Impact 958,485 2,386,082 under the EEP Centers and Higher Education Spending Reports for Institutions each Withdrawal 100% of amounts spent and reported under the EEP (2) Unallocated 0 0 Spending Reports for each Withdrawal (3) Eligible Expenditure Programs under Parts 1 and 2.1 of the Project for ACE Impact Centers and Higher Education Institutions (3.1) DLI 1: Institutional Readiness 0 0 Results (3.2) DLI 2: Development Impact of 287,600 0 ACE Impact Centers (3.3) DLI 3: Quantity of Students with focus on gender and 431,065 0 regionalization 100% of amounts spent and reported (3.4) DLI 4: Quality of Education under the EEP and Research through Spending Reports for international accreditation, each Withdrawal 1,959,515 0 research publications and improved teaching and research infrastructure (3.5) DLI 5: Relevance of Education and Research through externally generated revenue, 154,460 313,918 internships, and entrepreneurship (3.6) DLI 6: Timeliness and Quality 269,625 0 of fiduciary management (3.7) DLI 7: Institutional Impact 539,250 0 TOTAL AMOUNT 4,600,000 2,700,000” -4- Annex 2 “SCHEDULE 4 Disbursement Linked Indicators DLI DLI Total DLI Total Financing from Financing from the Grant the Credit Verification Protocol Formula (expressed in (expressed in SDR)* SDR)* Two results: US$ 300,000 (SDR 215 705) per (i) Basic readiness: Financing Agreement is effective; The RFU has milestone. Not scalable within each approved of the center’s Implementation Plan and the Procurement and milestone Financial Management Manuals. Official designation of the core team members (Center leader, Deputy Center leader, FM responsible, procurement responsible, M&E responsible and sectoral liaison). Further, the Center has designated a non-staff student representative to the RFU, and DLI 1: 862,820 0 (ii) Full readiness: Project Management certification for at least one Institutional leading team member; Functional center website (a link to the center’s Readiness Results website); Student handbook on the website with policies for sexual harassment and scholarships; and Sectoral Advisory Board constituted and its endorsement of the Implementation Plan Independent, external evaluation of the development impact of the ACE DLR 2.1 is scalable based on the score of center conducted in during Year 3 (2021) and end of Year 6 (2024). External the center on the scale (1 to 5). US$ 25,000 evaluators assess and score development impact of the center. In Year 3, (SDR 17,975) per point in the score. score is based upon progress towards development impact. In Year 6, score DLR 2.2 is scalable based on the score of is based upon achievement of development impact. The criteria for the center on the scale (1 to 5) using the DLI 2: evaluation will include: (i) Relevance and impact on society of graduates, following formula. A score of 3 or more Development 0 287,600 including the share of graduates hired in the target sector and feedback from earns 100% of US$ 100,000 (SDR 71,900) Impact of ACE key employers; (ii) relevance and impact of research on society; (iii) and any remaining balance from DLR 2.1. Impact Centers progress on DLIs; (iv) SAB annual reports; and (v) interviews with center A score of 2 earns 75% of the following graduates and sectoral stakeholders. The detailed scoring rubrics will be package: US$ 100,000 (SDR 71,900) and defined in the Regional Operations Manual. any remaining balance from DLR 2.1. A score of 1 earns 40% of the following package: US$ 100,000 (SDR 71,900) and any remaining balance from DLR 2.1. -5- Number of new eligible Doctorate and master students as well as short- Scalable per student. The number of course professional students of which at least 30% combined must be students by type is indicative in this table regional students. For institutions receiving support to Colleges of for planning purpose. Unless otherwise Engineering and Emerging centers, first degree students in ACE Impact agreed in the Project Regional Operations courses are eligible as well. The regional operations manual and the Manual, the ACE Impact Center can approved. Implementation Plan will define what constitutes an eligible achieve the DLI through any combination student for each ACE. of the student types with the condition that 30 percent of students must be regional. For PhD students: US$ 10,000 (SDR 7190) per male national student, US$ 12,500 (SDR 8990) per female national DLI 3: student, US$ 12,500 (SDR 8990) per male Quantity of regional student, and US$ 15,600 (SDR Students with 254,005 876,625 11215) per female regional student. focus on gender Master Students: US$ 2,000 (SDR and regionalization 1440) per national male student, US$ 2,500 (SDR 1800) per national female student, US$ 4,000 (SDR 2875) per regional male student and US$ 5,000 (SDR 3595) per regional female student. For short-course professional and first- degree students: US$ 400 (SDR 290) per national male student, US$ 500 (SDR 360) per national female student, US$ 800 (SDR 575) per regional male student, and US$ 1,000 (SDR 720) per female regional student. There are three results: For accreditation: not scalable per (i) international accreditation. Disbursement occurs when an accreditation or accreditation step. Amount per step: US$ assessment step has been verified to have taken place through submission of 300,000 (SDR 215 705) per program DLI 4: accreditation/evaluation report and/or certification to the RFU; internationally accredited by a pre- Quality of (ii) ACE-relevant research articles are published in internationally approved accreditation agency; US$ Education and recognized peer reviewed journals. Verification is through internationally 100,000 (SDR 71 900) per program Research through bibliometric databases; nationally/regionally accredited; US$ international 409,835 2,319,015 (iii) Completion of milestones for improved learning and research 300,000 (SDR 215 705) per gap- accreditation, infrastructure specified in the approved Implementation Plan of each center. assessment/self-evaluation undertaken research This result will in the majority of cases be verified through onsite evaluation with an international accreditation agency; publications and of the installation and operationalization of the civil works and equipment US$ 50,000 (SDR 35 950) for improved teaching improvements. new/revamped courses meeting and research international standards and approved by infrastructure the Sector Advisory Board. For research publication: Scalable per article. Amounts: US$ 10,000 (SDR 7190) per article co-authored by ACE Impact -6- student/faculty and national partners; US$ 15,000 (SDR 10 785) per article co- authored with regional partners. For teaching and research infrastructure, the result is not scalable within each milestone. US$ 300,000 (SDR 215 705) per milestone Three results can be achieved: (i) Externally generated revenue, such as tuition and other student fees, For external revenue, US$/SDR 1 for each research consultancies, fund raising and competitive grants earned by the US$/SDR 1 generated from national non- DLI 5: Center. The funding must be in an account and under spending control of the company sources or international sources; Relevance of center leadership. This is expected to be verified through financial auditors. US$/SDR 2 for each US$/SDR 1 Education and (ii) Number of students and faculty with at least 1-month period generated from regional sources or Research through 1,124,807 244,972 internship in relevant sector institutions. The verifier validates the list of companies; externally students/faculty that have participated in at least 1-month period For internship, US$ 1,000 (SDR 720) generated revenue, internships/outreach in relevant sector-relevant institutions, and per period in country and US$ 1,500 (SDR internships, and (iii) Meeting the milestone for developing entrepreneurship, innovation, 1080) per period in region; entrepreneurship start-up companies, and commercialization support programs. Each For entrepreneurship milestone US$ approved Center Implementation Plan contains a milestone of results and 100,000 (SDR 71 900) for the milestone. activities to develop student and faculty entrepreneurship This DLR is scalable. Timely fiduciary reporting includes timely submissions of IFRs, financial Scalable within each result. For instance, audit and procurement audit for the center; Timeliness implies respect of the disbursement can take place for the reports deadlines established in the Financing Agreement. The procurement audit that were timely submitted even if other for the financial year is due when the financial audit is due; reports were submitted with a delay. Unit Functional institutional oversight of fiduciary management. Functioning costs are: DLI 6: internal audit unit and functioning audit committee (under the university’s Amounts: US$ 47,000 (SDR 35 000) Timeliness and 48,533 296,588 council); for timely fiduciary reporting; Quality of Transparency of ACE expenses, notably the approved budget, annual Amount US$ 47,000 (SDR 35 000) for fiduciary work plan, IFRs with an annex on detailed expenditures, project financial Functional institutional oversight of management and procurement audit reports are visibly accessible on the center’s websites. fiduciary management; Amount US$ 47,000 (SDR 35 000) for Web transparency of ACE expenditures -7- ACE Impact host institution: Not scalable. (i) endorses a meaningful university-wide regional strategy. US$$ 100,000 (SDR 71 900) for (ii) undertakes open, merit-based competitive selection of the head of the University-wide regional strategy; university and/or the department heads related to the ACE. US$ 200,000 (SDR 143 800) for open, (iii) undertakes institutional wide international accreditation or a self- merit-based competitive selection of the evaluation following an established methodology. head of institution; US$ 50,000 (SDR 35 (iv) participates in the PASET Regional Benchmarking initiative and 950) for open and merit-based competitive DLI 7: 0 575,200 submits complete data on at least 85% of the required indicators with an selection of a dean; Institutional intervention plan to improve performance. The accreditation agency and US$ 275,000 (SDR 197 725) for the Impact methodology used must be acceptable to the World Bank and the RFU. gap assessment/self-evaluation completed (v) Meeting milestones for promoting institutional impact. Each approved with an international accreditation agency; Center Implementation Plan contains milestone(s) of results and activities to US$ 100,000 (SDR 71 900) for each improve institutional impact phase the university participates in the PASET benchmarking initiative (up to two phases in total); US$ 100,000 (SDR 71 900) per institutional impact milestone. TOTAL 2,700,000 4,600,000 AMOUNT *Combination of disbursed and undisbursed amounts as of July 21, 2023 ”